Six-week deadline: Govt told to vacate premises of Islamia Colleges

If the govt fails to do so, the students will study at the Governor and CM Houses, says SHC.

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court gave six weeks time to the Sindh government on Friday to vacate the building of the Government Islamia Colleges for Arts, Science, Commerce and Law and hand over the premises peacefully to its owner, the Islamic Education Foundation Trust.

There are around six schools and colleges being run on the subject property, where around 20,000 students - from grade one to undergraduate levels - are enrolled.

“If the authorities fail to get the premises vacated, then the students will study at the Governor House and Chief Minister House,” cautioned the judges irritated by frequent delays in vacating the premises despite repeated directions.

The issue arose when the trust took the provincial government to the court for failing to pay rent that amounts in millions for using its land for the last 40 years.



According to the trust, the rent is due since the government took over the colleges in 1972 under a martial law regulation.

While the government allegedly occupied the land even after denationalization, it did not pay a single penny to the trust on account of rent.

Decreeing a suit in favour of the Islamic Education Foundation Trust, a rent controller had in 2008 ordered the government to pay rent lying outstanding on it for the last four decades. Instead, the government appealed against the decision but could not win the case.

On Friday, Mureed Ali Shah, the trust’s lawyer, told the judges that the government had lost the case at various forums while it had not even paid the rent amount. He recalled the court had earlier ordered the government to get the subject premises vacated and hand over its physical possession to the trust in peaceful manner but the same had not yet been implemented.

He sought a direction for the executive and education authorities to implement the court’s direction.

Justice Maqbool Baqar, while heading the bench, directed the authorities concerned to vacate the property within six weeks and hand over its peaceful possession to the trust.

It also directed the chief secretary and education secretary to appear along with compliance report by the next date.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 1^st, 2013.