School on 'encroached land' may face demolition

HYDERABAD:

A private school existing at a prime location for over three decades is likely to face demolition as Anti Encroachment Tribunal, Hyderabad, has ordered the authorities to retrieve 1,140 square yards of the encroached land.

The Presiding judge Zulfiqar Ali Solangi gave the order on Thursday concerning 1,416 square yards of land located between the Radio Pakistan Hyderabad and the deputy commissioner's residence on Saddar road.

The land in question, worth hundreds of millions of rupees, is supposed to be returned to Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC). The operation includes the demolition of illegal structure and recovering of demolition cost as well as the arrears of the land revenue from the individuals responsible for encroachment, reads the order, given on the petition filed by private persons advocate Ghulam Sarwar Qureshi and Saad Ali Thaeem.

According to the ruled card for city survey number 1,417, an area of 1,140 square yards was granted to the Red Cross office free of cost by the HMC. The commissioner subsequently sanctioned the move on September 8, 1969.

The official shows that the land granted to the Red Cross Society between the Radio Pakistan and the DC House was originally a road. The property granted by the commissioner's office measured 930 square yards until April 10, 2007. Later, the measurement was 'corrected' on July 11, 2009, to 1,140 square yards.

Mukhtiarkar stated in his report that as per the record, a piece of government land measuring 6,037 square yards existed between the Radio Pakistan and the DC House. The Society and its tenant, Strong Base High School, was given 1,140 square yards while the possession of the rest of the 6,037 square yards is divided among the DC House, Radio Pakistan and Fatima High School, which is using 3,177 square yards.

In its statement before the court on January 30, 2023, the Society submitted that 1,140 square yards of wasteland was entered in the name of the Red Crescent office. They apprised the court that the same land was rented to Mrs Neelofar Hakim, general secretary of Al-Qasim Education Society, on March 29, 1993, by the then deputy commissioner for a period of five years. The rent agreement, executed on June 14, 2007, by ex-chairman Red Crescent Dr Muhammad Farooq Memon, extended tanany of Hakim up to 2036.

The judge observed that the official record about the said lease is silent about the manner in which the plot was leased or allotted whether by means of auction, balloting or other means. He added that the land in question was meant to be used for a road.