Karachi unrest case: KMC, revenue dept submit records; SC displeased

Hearing adjourned till October 31.

KARACHI: In the third hearing of the Karachi unrest case follow-up, the five-member bench of the apex court was presented with records and, once again, the court was displeased with the results, Express News reported on Thursday.

In the case underway at the Supreme Court’s Karachi Registry on the implementation of the court’s verdict last year, the court had summoned for records of maps of Karachi from different departments including Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and the Sindh Board of Revenue.

During the hearing, there was a definite change in the government’s attitude after Justice Amir Haani’s remarks yesterday where he stated that instead of wanting immunity from court appearances, officers should themselves pay special attention when the city is burning.

The change was such that the chief secretary, IG Sindh and the additional home secretary appeared in court – willingly.

As the hearing proceeded, maps of Karachi were presented on behalf of KMC, the board of revenue and other departments.

These maps, however, were old ones. They were maps of when Karachi was defined by districts and not as a town system.

The attorney general told the court that the records were being computerised and a summary of the comprehensive survey had been forwarded to the Sindh chief minister.

In response, the court stated that if manual maps were incorrect, so would be the computerized ones.

The court further remarked that surveys were ordered by the Sindh High Court (SHC) earlier too but the orders were not implemented and if the court let them go now, the orders would never be implemented.

The hearing was adjourned till October 31.