Karachi used to look like a European town and tourists preferred it over London once, says Justice Gulzar Ahmed. PHOTO: FILE
KARACHI: In a major step towards saving the city’s green cover and open spaces, the Supreme Court (SC) ordered the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) and Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) authorities on Wednesday to clear as many 35,000 amenity spaces from encroachments within two months.
The apex court ordered the KDA DG and KMC officials to cancel illegal allotments in respect to all the amenity spaces across the city. It further told them to remove encroachments from these amenity spaces, including the 35,000 plots disclosed by the KDA.
The judges also told them to ensure that those plots that had been illegally sold through China-cutting are retrieved from the encroachers at any cost. The court also sought a report in respect to a wall built in front of the city’s iconic Mohatta Palace.
The court told the KDA and KMC chiefs to complete this exercise within two months and submit their reports regarding compliance with the above orders.
KDA jumps into action following court order
The apex court’s two-judge bench, comprising justices Gulzar Ahmed and Sajjad Ali Shah, passed these orders after heated proceedings on a contempt of court order application filed by Sabina Parveen who was allotted an amenity plot in North Karachi in lieu of a piece of residential land. The petitioner alleged that she was allotted a residential plot in the Surjani Town, which was illegally allotted to a third party by the KDA or KMC officials. Instead the officials allotted her an amenity plot in North Karachi's Sector 11-E.
Taking serious notice of such practices, the apex court had directed the KDA director-general and deputy director to clear all the amenity spaces in the city of encroachments two days ago.
At the outset of the hearing, the judges took serious exception to absence of KDA Director-General Samiuddin Siddiqui, despite clear directives to appear in court. KDA officials said that the DG was ill and could not appear in court.
Briefly putting aside the matter, the bench members remarked that DG will immediately appear if the court will issue warrants for his arrest. Later, DG Siddiqui appeared in the court.
KDA’s director for the master plan disclosed that the as many as 35,000 amenity plots had illegally been occupied, carved into small plots and sold.
SC orders removal of all encroachments from public parks, plots
Justice Ahmed, the bench’s head, remarked that whole city had been destroyed as lands had been illegally occupied and sold through China-cutting - a term used for illegal occupation and carving of land into plots and its subsequent sale.
The top court’s judge observed that the last operation against encroachments in the city was carried out during the martial law imposed of General (retd) Ayub Khan which left Karachi resembling a European city.
Coming down hard on the KDA officials, the judge told them to leave their offices and start working in the field. He told them that cabins had been installed in Gulshan-e-Iqbal and the situation beyond Disco Bakery was the worst.
In his report, Siddiqui informed the court that during the two-day operation illegal constructions including wedding halls built on amenity plots had been demolished, adding that encroachments from greenbelts were also removed.
The master plan director said that there were six different master plans for the city, which had been amended in 2000, 1985, 1974, 1965 and 1953. The director disclosed that the illegal allotments of amenity spaces had started after the relevant laws were amended in 1992.
Justice Ahmed reminded the officers that the court had passed an order to retrieve the city’s amenity plots from encroachments back in 2011 and remarked that things will improve if all the officers were sent to jail.
Bhains Colony residents want encroachments removed
Briefly adjourning the matter, the bench told the KDA DG to come up with a solution.
Later, the KMC land director also appeased that the amenity plots and open spaces had been illegally occupied and sold through China-cutting.
The officer’s reply annoyed the judges, who remarked that illegal encroachments always increase after the anti-encroachment cell’s staff carried out an operation in any area.
Justice Ahmed asked them to take the example of Saddar, where the roads had shrunk to hardly 10 feet in width.
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