Real estate: Another Jamshoro varsity under threat by land grabbers

The land mafia tried to occupy MUET’s land about a month ago and have now moved to LUMHS.

HYDERABAD:

As the land grabbing issue at Jamshoro’s engineering university drags on, another piece of land belonging to a neighbouring medical university now faces a similar threat.

The land mafia, according to the administration of Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, has its eyes set on around 200 acres of the varsity’s land. “A group of land grabbers is trying to occupy the land in the garb of Misri Khan Khoso village, which only has 10 acres demarcated in the revenue records,” claimed the varsity’s deputy registrar, Dr Saroop Bhatia.

Dr Bhatia reported that the grabbers had even started selling pieces of the land through stamp papers. He told The Express Tribune that the university had registered four separate FIRs at Jamshoro Police Station against Laung Khoso and Papan Khoso, who he claimed were the main perpetrators. The varsity’s sources claim that the grabbers are being supported by a politician belonging to the ruling party in Sindh.

The Khosos, on their part, claim that the land belonged to their forefathers. “We started to sell the land recently because residential colonies and units are now being built slowly in our area. Earlier, the construction activity was limited to the land in front of the three universities,” said Zahid Khoso, justifying their sudden claim of ownership and attempts to occupy the land. He added that the residents of his village, including women and children, had held a protest demonstration the other day against the varsity authorities.

Last month, armed men occupied around 200 acres of land whose ownership is claimed by Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (MUET). The two-day long possession of the land ended when the MUET’s officials, staff, teachers and students together staged a protest at the Super Highway and than marched on to the land to drive off the squatters.

The MUET employees accused Hyderabad’s Special Branch SSP Farooq Ahmed Jamali, who is also brother of PPP’s MNA Rafique Ahmed Jamali, for backing the land mafia. The dispute is now under trial in court.

Several Pakistan Peoples Party leaders, including MNA Malik Asad Sikandar and MPAs Dr Sikandar Ali Shoro, Faqir Dad Khoso and Abdul Nabi Shah are the elected legislators from Jamshoro district.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 15^th, 2013.