The Sindh High Court on Wednesday issued notices to the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) and the Advocate General Sindh on a petition regarding dismantling of encroachment in Afghan Basti.
A refugee camp was set up by the then government near the Sohrab Goth area of Karachi for the Afghan people escaping their war ravaged country in the 1980s.
Sohrab Goth till the 1980s was a suburban area where many apartment blocks were under construction. The Afghan refugees, over the period of time encroached beyond the refugee camps and became part of the social fabric of the multi-ethnic metropolis.
However, the encroachment on apartment buildings and plots has caused a legal battle, with no authority willing to come head on with the issue.
The counsel for the petitioner submitted before the SHC bench, headed by Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi that the land meant for developing housing scheme and flats has been occupied since the 1990s, but nothing has been done even though the Supreme Court had ordered the removal of these encroachments on a petition of Naimatullah Khan.
Justice Rizvi remarked that if the Supreme Court has already given the order, what does the petitioner wants from the SHC.
The petitioner's counsel submitted that the concerned authorities were afraid of going to the tent settlement of Afghan refugees. This is true because this court has also given several orders in the past but nothing has happened, the bench remarked.
The counsel further submitted that there were also parks and other amenity plots there for general public. The court wondered why its decisions were not implemented! The counsel submitted that if the court handed an order now, then the situation might improve.
On this, the court issued notices to the KDA and the Advocate General Sindh directing them to submit their response.
Meanwhile, another SHC bench took up a petition regarding allotment of alternative living quarters to the employees of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation's (KMC) Jahangir Park.
The court had ordered the Water Board employees to vacate the KMC quarters immediately. It ordered that all illegal residents, including the families of deceased and retirees, should be evicted from their quarters within 10 days and directed the Water Board director to inform the court. The court also ordered that the eligible KMC employees should be allotted alternate living quarters immediately.
The KMC's Jahangir Park employees have taken the stance in their petition that their quarters were vacated on the pretext of Jahangir Park renovation. Although alternative quarters have been allotted to them, but those were already occupied, the petitioners claimed.
They further maintained that house rent has been deducted from their salary for the last 17 years, but they are not being provided residences.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 22nd, 2022.
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