'Influential person' may cost CJM its new campus

Construction on land gifted to the convent in Clifton Block 5 halted

KARACHI: The construction of the new campus of the Convent of Jesus and Mary (CJM) in Clifton’s Block 5 has been halted, allegedly on the orders of a powerful person.

The power of those who stopped the construction can be gauged by the fact that no one is ready to even mention the name of the person on whose orders the Karachi administration sprang into action and halted construction work.

Despite Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah laying the foundation stone of the new building of the school on the 5,000 square yard plot on April 25, the construction of the convent has been stopped after intervention by a powerful personality.

The school was established in Karachi in 1957 and has several campuses all over Pakistan, the oldest of which was established in Sialkot in 1856. The all-girl’s school is very well-known and many prominent personalities have studied here.

The school administration claimed that it was in possession of all the documents and permission regarding the expansion of the school from the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) and Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) to establish its right on the land.



After 22 days passed, the construction was stopped and the plaque of the foundation stone was demolished.

According to sources, the school administration tried to continuously contact the KDA, SBCA and Cantonment Board Clifton but no one is ready to give a reply or help the school administration with the issue.

However, an official press note issued on Saturday said that the chief secretary had taken notice of the school’s construction being halted.

Tracing the history of the plot, the notification said, plot number ST-21 in Block 5 Clifton was subdivided by the KDA in 1986.

The KDA allotted 39,344.62 square-yards to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to construct a squash complex, while the remaining portion of the 40,000 square-yard plot, which was assigned the number 21-B, was to be reserved for the development of a park.



In 2012, the CAA agreed to gift 5,000 square-yards of the 39,344.62 square-yards to CJM for educational purposes. The gift deed was signed and executed between the CAA and CJM in May, 2012.

In May 2013, an agreement was signed between the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and Karachi Grammar School (KGS) where the area reserved for the park was assigned to the school under the KMC’s adopt a park policy.

The records of the KDA and KMC both show that various plans prepared in 1985, 2012 and 2013 show different demarcations of the site allocated to the CAA and the site reserved for the park, which is the reason for the dispute between CJM and KGS.

According to the notification, the chief secretary’s office has taken notice of the situation and ordered an inquiry to ascertain the facts from the relevant records based on which the sites will be demarcated for the park and school as per the correct interpretation of the master plan.