Coveted property: Land mafia zeroes in on another school building

The claimant has come forward for lease renewal after 22 years.

KARACHI:

In what appears to be another move to grab a public school building, a claimant, through his newspaper announcement, has shocked the teachers and 200 students at the Grammar Government Girls’ Primary and Boys’ Lower Secondary School in Liaquabad by claiming rights to the public property.

The claimant, Mohammad Furqan, son of Sheikh Salahuddin, recently made a public announcement that he was going to get the title to the property transferred in his name. Dissenters were invited to contact the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s land lease deputy director within a seven-day period.

Meanwhile, government records reveal that the 160-square-yard plot, No 10/6-A located in Liaquatabad B Area, was leased for 30 years in the name of the late Maratibzadi Khanum on May 3, 1962. “I remember her as a God-fearing woman who had allowed the building to be used for educational purposes since the 1960s,” said 73-year-old Mohammad Shamshad, a resident of the area.

“Later, the school was nationalised with her consent during the early 1970s and carries the same status to date,” added Sultana Parveen, the principal at the school for the last seven years.



Interestingly, though the lease of the land had expired on May 3, 1992, the claimant, after a questionable silence of around 22 years, has come forward for the lease renewal and mutation of the plot in his name.

“Nobody in the area knows about the claimant’s whereabouts and we do not even know what proof he holds for being a legal heir of the deceased owner of this nationalised property,” said Shahid Hussain Sheikh, Liaquatabad’s assistant district officer for education. “Whatever may be the case, the claimant must come forward in a legal way to establish his ownership of the property. The government will follow the due procedures for property denationalisation.”

Earlier, the alleged land grabbers, in cahoots with the education department officials, had bought the buildings of the National Ideal Government Boys Primary School and the Muniba Memorial Government Boys Primary and Lower Secondary School in Federal B Area Block 6.

These two transactions, involving Javed Mian, the owner of the famous Javed Nihari house, were reportedly manoeuvred using forged papers that named the sellers as the owners of the buildings even though these were nationalised buildings. Later, when the government changed its policy, it had returned the school buildings to their actual owners. The unidentified sellers claimed them and sold the school buildings to Mian.

More than 700 public schools offer classes in the afternoon, but student enrolment at 90 per cent of these schools is nil despite the lure of ‘free’ education and availability of teachers. The Grammar Government Girls’ Primary School is, however, an exception, with 50 students that attend the classes daily. “If the claimant manages to take over the building, the education department should be ready to include yet another school in its list of zero-enrolment schools,” remarked Parveen, the school’s principal. “My teachers are devoted to their jobs and they have even gone out of their way to convince parents of advantages of sending their girls to this school through door-to-door visits.”

“This ownership declaration seems to be a scam like that of Idea and Muniba schools when the education department officials colluded with the land-grabbing mafia,” said one of the four teachers appointed at the school. “What they do is claim ownership of the building, following which the education department issues notification regarding transfer of teachers and students to some other public school located nearby.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 2^nd, 2014.