Land Grabbing: SC orders police to collect details of all petitions on encroachments

Order passed at Karachi violence suo motu hearing on Thursday by a larger bench of the Supreme Court.

KARACHI:

The Supreme Court ordered the police to collect details of all petitions and suits against land grabbing pending in the courts and bring them to court today.

The order was passed at the Karachi violence suo motu hearing on Thursday by a larger bench of the Supreme Court, comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, Justice Amir Hani Muslim and Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan.

The head of the anti-encroachment force, SP Irfan Bahadur, will collect the details while the prosecutor general will send a request to the Sindh High Court chief justice Mushir Alam to appoint judicial offices in special courts established to try and decide cases of land grabbing - both civil and criminal. Alam is expected to appoint the two judges within three days.

The bench also directed IG police, Board of Revenue senior member and other relevant officers to file comments on involvement of their officials in lands encroachment, illegal transfers, etc.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 5^th, 2013.