Bus terminal: Revenue board claims CDGK never paid for land it bought

SHC orders revenue board to submit report within 10 days.

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has ordered the Board of Revenue to submit a summary about 100 acres earmarked for the inter-city bus terminal on the Super Highway.

The board was told to submit its report after acquiring the Sindh government’s approval within 10 days.

The division bench was hearing a petition filed by Haji Rab Nawaz. His advocate, Abrar Hasan, said that the work on the terminal still hasn’t begun despite claims made by the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) that it had bought the allocated land.

The advocate said that his client was harassed by the traffic police over parking inter-city buses. He appealed to the court to order that the terminal is built soon.

Ahmed Pirzada, the board’s advocate, told the bench that possession of the land had not been handed over to the CDGK because it hadn’t paid the money.

Manzoor Ahmed advocate, the CDGK’s lawyer, referred to an earlier court order according to which the advocate general was directed to solve the issue. Responding to Pirzada’s claim, Ahmed said that the land was demarcated and then handed over to the CDGK. He claimed that the first plan of the project was also ready and the authority was only waiting for funds to be released under the annual development budget.

The court displeased with different stances by two government departments adjourned the proceedings for a fortnight after ordering the board to submit the summary within 10.

The bench also ordered the authorities to speed up the construction of the bus terminal so that illegal bus terminals are moved out of the city.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 10^th, 2012.