SHC seeks Hyderabad's map, survey records from 1943 to 1946

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has sought Hyderabad's map and the records of city surveys carried out between 1943 and 1946 to verify dubious claims pertaining to old constructions, said to be encroachments, on state land.

The Hyderabad circuit bench, comprising Justice Zulfiqar Ahmed Khan and Justice Muhammad Saleem Jessar, sought the records in an anti-encroachment case and also constituted a core committee headed by Hyderabad deputy commissioner Fuad Ghaffar Soomro to deal with complaints against the anti-encroachment operation.

The additional registrar of the SHC, the municipal commissioner of the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) and lawyers representing the petitioners and complainants will be part of the committee. The old map of Hyderabad was sought after some commercial tenants of the HMC claimed that the structures existed at or before the Partition.

"We have decided that the structures, which existed in the old map, won't be touched but the rest will be razed," Justice Khan said in his remarks during the hearing. Advocate Ayatullah Khuwaja, representing a shopkeeper, contended that the HMC itself constructed shops outside the school for the hearing and speech impaired in City taluka and rented out those properties.

"The school's building exists in its original condition but the HMC has been unable to run the school," he said. Another lawyer, Irfan Qureshi, said the corporation had been taking rent even from the owners those shops that had been proved not to be encroachments.

"If the building is demolished, around 500 shopkeepers and their thousands of workers will be deprived of their livelihoods," he said and demanded compensation for the tenants if the property was to be razed.

"Empress Market in Karachi was also surrounded by shops. But on court orders, the tenants were issued notices to vacate [the shops] and they complied," Justice Khan said in his remarks, adding that if the lawyers kept defending the encroachments, the operation to retrieve the government land would be affected.

Advocate Arshad S Pathan claimed that he had himself seen city survey records and maps of the years between 1943 and 1946 and he could verify that some of the structures that were being demolished as encroachment existed back then.

Justice Jessar pointed out that the HMC had served notices to its tenants and leaseholders, conveying that both the agreements had been cancelled. DC Soomro complained against the Cantonment Board Hyderabad, informing the court that neither encroachments were being removed, nor power generators placed on the footpaths.

He said the Sindh Building Control Authority was also not cooperating in identifying encroachments and was not sharing the records of its approved and unapproved structures. He also complained that the HMC's machinery for demolishing illegal structures was ineffective.

The SHC directed the DC to submit in writing all the problems he had been confronting in implementing the court order.

Realigning poles

The court was informed that a committee to decide the cost of the shifting of electricity poles from road centers had been formed, but the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) had refused to become a member of the committee.

The NEPRA maintains that the problem pertains to the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company, which is responsible for power transmission in the areas of its operations.

"It's good that the committee has been formed. But, we want to know what progress has been made so far," Justice Khan asked. The court had ordered the constitution of the committee on March 20, after HESCO and the Sindh government locked horns over bearing the cost of relocation.

The former demanded Rs157 million from the latter, which refused to provide the funds, arguing that HESCO was responsible for the transmission and that the company was also not paying the rent for its installations.