Land mafia encroaches on Malir graveyard land

SHC orders DC to submit report on plots’ occupation in Gulstan-e-Jauhar

KARACHI:

The Sindh High Court (SHC) heard a petition regarding the land mafia's occupation of a cemetery in Malir.

The petitioner's counsel, Usman Farooq Advocate, stated that a politically well-connected and influential group was systematically encroaching on the land of an ancient graveyard which spreads over 52 acres.

Builders have already started illegal constructions in the graveyard located in the Shah Latif Town.

The petitioner claimed that unlawful occupation is being carried out in connivance with the local administration. The Deputy Commissioner had written a letter to the Assistant Commissioner to end the occupation.

After hearing the petitioner's stance, the court notified the provincial government, DC Malir and others and sought their response within four weeks.

The SHC ordered the Deputy Commissioner East to submit a report in consultation with the Additional Advocate General on a petition against the illegal occupation of 404 plots in Block-6 of Gulistan-e-Jauhar.

A two-member SHC bench headed by Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi hearing the petition expressed indignation over the KDA officials for failing to end the illegal occupation. Justice Rizvi said DC is trying to pass the buck. The plots of the schemes launched 44 years ago could not be given to the original owners, the court observed.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, August 20^th, 2022.