Abusing power: Anti-encroachment official 'occupies' university land

Mehran University officials claim SSP Jamali has encroached about 200 acres of the institute's property.

HYDERABAD: A piece of land, reserved for the future expansion of Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro, has been occupied by squatters allegedly in connivance with an official of the anti-encroachment police.

Ironically, the university's officials blame Hyderabad special branch SSP Farooq Ahmed Jamali, who also heads the anti-encroachment cell, for the encroachment. The MUET, according to its chief engineer and estate officer, Mir Shaukat Talpur, owns around 2,000 acres on either side of Super Highway near Jamshoro toll plaza. "We wanted to build a boundary wall along the whole land but the university could not afford it," Talpur told The Express Tribune. Jamali, he informed, had illegally claimed around 200 acres.



The security officer, Ghazi Khan Parehar, said that armed men had demolished a post manned by the university's private security guards, following which the squatters had then set up their own camps. "Around 50 men, most of them armed and appearing to be policemen in civil clothes, had forcibly occupied the land. We have recorded video evidence of the whole incident."

A police officer, requesting anonymity, claimed that Jamali had intervened on behalf of the squatters with the policemen who had been sent to evict the land on the orders of Jamshoro SSP Wasee Hyder on Thursday. SHO Shahnawaz Chandio confirmed that the police had removed the tents but no arrests were made. The security officer claimed, however, that the squatters had returned in the evening.

According to MUET officers' association president Najeeb Rehman Channa, the vice-chancellor had written letters to the chief justices of the Supreme Court and the Sindh High Court. "He [Jamali] is a close relative of Pakistan Peoples Party MNA Rafique Jamali. We want the chief justice to take notice as influential people are involved."

The Mehran University Teachers Association has given a day's time to the government and police officials to resolve the matter. "The teachers along with the officers, staff and students will hold a demonstration and block the highway if this illegal activity doesn't end by tomorrow morning," said Dr Arshad Memon, MUTA's general secretary.



Despite repeated attempts, Jamali was unavailable for comments. According to university sources, SSP Wasee Hyder is trying to arrange a meeting between the varsity officials and SSP Jamali at the DIG Hyderabad Naeem Akram Baroka's office to resolve the matter.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2013.