SHC stays allotment of research farm land for housing scheme

Petition claims land being illegally handed over for construction of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Township

HYDERABAD: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has stayed the allotment of 78 acres of land for the construction of the Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Township in Mirpurkhas.

The order came on a petition filed by Masood Ahmed Wassan and three others, who prayed to the court that the land is being allegedly illegally handed over for the township.



They claimed that the land in question is part of the 282 acres of land in Hussain Bux Mari taluka, Mirpurkhas, where the Sindh Horticulture Research Institute conducts research and cultivation of different fruits and vegetables.

The petition maintained that the revenue department illegally allotted the land for the 100-acre township. According to them, two weeks ago, the township's management tried occupying the land and chopped down 100 'valuable' mango trees from the orchard.



They claimed that 120 varieties of mangoes have been grown on 70 of the 282 acre land and other fruits on another 37 acres. Further, there is a vegetable research centre on 51 acres and a livestock research centre on 24 acres, they said.

The SHC's division bench of justices Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi and Yousuf Ali Sayeed ordered the Sindh chief secretary, agriculture secretary, land utilisation secretary, senior member of the board of revenue, Mirpurkhas commissioner and other respondents to submit a reply by July 30.