Lyari Expressway: Officials demand bribes for compensation

KARACHI:

The Sindh High Court issued notices to officers of the Lyari Expressway Rehabilitation Project and others on Tuesday on a plea seeking contempt proceedings against them for allegedly demanding a ‘huge bribe’ for compensation and alternative plots to the hundreds of people displaced by the Lyari Expressway Project.

Petitioner Ishaq along with 205 other people affected by the Lyari Expressway Project had gone filed the petition.

They submitted that the government had demolished their homes in Ghousia Colony, Quaid-e-Azam Colony, Gulistan-e-Mustafa, Sooba Goth, Muslim Colony, Bhangoria Goth, Gushan-e-Iqbal, Keamari town, Jamshed town and Gulberg town to acquire land for the expressway.

On August 8, 2012, the SHC had disposed of their petition with orders to the authorities to pay their compensation and give them the alternate plots of land as promised, within three weeks.

They alleged, however, that the officers who were supposed to follow the court’s order demanded huge bribes to get the work done. This is tantamount to willfully committing contempt of court.

The petitioners appealed to the court to initiate contempt proceedings against the chief secretary, commissioner, administrator of the Karachi Municipal Corporation, the project director, the director of finance and administration, the director of land management, the assistant director for land for the Lyari Expressway Project and the chief engineer of Hawksbay and Taiser Town.

After hearing the initial arguments, the SHC division bench headed by Chief Justice Mushir Alam issued notice to the respondents for a date when in identical matter is already fixed for hearing.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 3^rd, 2012.