SHC settles 18-year-old dispute between KPT, Sindh government

Court rejects Sindh govt's claim over land allotted for KPT staff society

KARACHI: After 18 years of proceedings, the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Saturday announced its decision on a land dispute between the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) Officers Housing Society and the Government of Sindh in favor of the housing society.

A single bench comprising Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar accepted the plea of the society and declared that allotment of 130 acres land at Mai Kolachi Bypass Expressway to the KPT Officers' Society as lawful.

The society had challenged a Sindh government order pertaining to the development work at the property and its claim that the land belonged to the Government of Sindh.



The society had maintained in the court that the land was owned by the KPT and its board had allotted the land and leased it to the KPT Officers Housing Society in 1990.

The Sindh government in its written statement argued that the land did not belong to the KPT but was owned by the provincial government. However, the revenue department admitted that the KPT exercised control over the land since 1887 but it was never transferred by the provincial government to the KPT.

The bench observed that the government neither denied the transaction through which the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) had acquired the land from the KPT for KDA Scheme No.5 nor denied the leasehold rights deed signed between the KPT and the United States of Amercia Consulate plot at the MT Khan, Mai Kolachi Road, nor denied a letter of the then Sindh Chief Minster to the then Prime Minister in which the former had suggested that 75 acres of China Creek may be acquired.



The court observed that the chief minister in his letter to the prime minister had stated that the land falls within the jurisdiction of KPT and it should be transferred to the Sindh government for better use and expansion of the city.

The court restrained the Sindh government from any interference in the matters of the KPT officer's housing society.

The court observed that the KPT officer housing society was entitled to the judgment for enduring order and decided the case in favour of the housing society.  

Published in The Express Tribune, February 10^th, 2019.