No Balochistan buses can park at Lea Market

SHC CJ orders traffic police to ensure that buses to or from Balochistan don't park at the bus terminal.

KARACHI: Sindh High Court Chief Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany has ordered the traffic police to ensure that no buses going to or coming from Balochistan be allowed to park at the Lea Market bus terminal or the bus stands at Banaras.

On Tuesday, the bench was hearing a petition filed by Haji Rabnawaz, a transporter, who questioned a vacation notice issued to him by a cantonment board. During the hearing, the EDO Law submitted that 100 acres of land were allotted for the construction of the inter-city and inter-provincial bus terminus.

The additional advocate general, Sindh, disputed the submission and said that the Malir Development Authority (MDA) is claiming the land in question. In his rebuttal, the EDO Law said that the MDA has encroached on the land.

After hearing the conflicting claims of land possession by the two government departments, the division bench ordered the demarcation of the land to end the tussle, after which the construction of a modern terminal would be undertaken by the City District Government, Karachi.

When the bench asked about the compliance of orders passed during the previous hearing, the counsels informed it that most of the buses from Lea Market had been removed and no parking exists now. But Balochistan-bound buses are still parked at different private bus terminals in the Banaras area, they added.

The bench asked the SP Traffic in attendance to convey to the DIG Traffic that no Balochistan-bound bus should be parked at Banaras as a proper bus terminal exists at Mochko.

The bench adjourned the hearing till October 26.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 13^th, 2010.