Police headquarters: Court orders removal of encroachments

Sindh IGP directed to ensure no property within HQ premises is leased or allotted.

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has ordered the Sindh inspector-general police to ensure that no property within premises of the police headquarters in Karachi is leased or allotted to any private person.

Justice Maqbool Baqir, who headed the bench, ordered removal of encroachments from the premises of the Garden headquarters of police within one week.

Retired DSP Haji Muhammad Akhtar, president of the Jamia Madina mosque located on the garden police headquarters, said that the entire land around the mosque was under illegal occupation of police officers.

The officers have constructed shops over there and rented out the same to citizens, he said. A gate of the headquarters is also locked due to which residents cannot move freely.

He pleaded to the court to order removal of encroachments. Sindh law officer Shafi Muhammad Memon and additional inspector-general (legal) Ali Sher Jakhrani assured that the home department and IGP would ensure removal of all encroachments within one week. The judges also ordered both officials to ensure that the rent collected from the shops is recorded, collected and deposited in the appropriate account.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 15^th, 2012.