Karachi's GOR II residents up in arms against eviction notices

Residents set up protest camp, file petition in SHC

KARACHI: Residents living in Sindhi Muslim Society's Government Officer Residence (GOR) flats (GOR II) have filed a petition in the Sindh High Court against what they claim as illegal orders for eviction by the Sindh government. According to the residents, these flats were allotted to them by the provincial government but the same authorities were now keen to evict the serving government employees.

The almost 80 tenants living in 'GOR II' said that they are government servants employed in different departments of the provincial government and are not illegal occupants.



The residents have also filed a petition against the eviction in the Sindh High Court, saying that they had high hopes of getting justice from the courts. They appealed to the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) and Sindh Chief Minister (CM) to take immediate notice of the allegedly illegal orders.

The outraged residents said if the government conducted an operation to evict the flats, they would protest against it. The residents, identified as Masroor Ahmed, Bahawaluddin Sheikh, Abdur Rasheed and others, set up a protest camp within the compound of the GOR II and expressed their frustration while talking to The Express Tribune. The residents further said that the government complex had 220 flats but only 80 of those tenants were told to evict their homes by Monday, September 24 and if they failed to comply, they would be forcibly removed with the help of the district administration and law enforcement agencies.

While speaking to The Express Tribune, the residents said that many of the families had been dwelling in these flats since the 1980s and had been allotted these flats by the Sindh government's department of Services and General Administration Coordination's state office.

They said that they were currently serving government employees and not even one of them was retired.



On the other hand, the Sindh government's state office said that these flats had only been allotted to the officers and employees of the provincial government's secretariat.

The residents also added that the Sindh government deducts the rent of the apartments from their salaries so that means they are not illegal occupants. They said that the Sindh government's Secretary of General Administration and State Office officers had allegedly briefed the CM and Chief Secretary incorrectly about GOR II and the 80 flats. They also accused the Sindh government's State Office of harassing them.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 24^th, 2018.