Intervention: Court stops DHA from blocking roads leading to Do Darya

Do Darya restaurant owners had complained DHA erected barriers to drive them out of business.

KARACHI:

The court has restrained the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) from putting up barriers on the roads leading to the Do Darya food street in Phase VIII.

Earlier, the DHA officials had put up concrete barriers on all main roads leading to the restaurants along the shore. It had cited ‘security threats’ as the main reason behind the decision. The restaurant owners went, however, to the Sindh High Court (SHC) complaining the authority merely wanted to drive them out of business. In July last year, the housing authority had wanted to evict these restaurants but the owners managed to get a stay order from SHC.

On Thursday, the SHC bench headed by Justice Munib Akhtar summoned the DHA’s senior officer to explain why the roads were blocked despite the earlier stay order. When the officer failed to appear, the bench warned to personally summon the authority’s secretary, if a senior officer failed to appear at the next hearing.

The owners of five hotels on the food street approached the court, alleging that the DHA has blocked all the arteries leading towards their businesses since February 23. The DHA had allotted an open piece of land, measuring 1,500 square yards, through a written lease agreement executed on June 6, 2011, to establish restaurants at Beach Avenue at a monthly rent of Rs100,000 each for an initial period starting from June 5, 2010, to April 30, 2012, with an increase in rent at 10 percent per year, the petition said.

As a result, the restaurants spent well over Rs6 million on constructions over the plots and the defendants gave them an assurance that they will not interfere in their businesses as the said land was valued at far less. The terms and conditions also stated that the agreement was renewable beyond those two years but the DHA will have to submit a written request to the restaurants.

According to the petitioners, the DHA management issued them a notice on March 22, 2013, to evict the land without giving any reason or lawful justification.  On July 27 the same year, the SHC restrained the DHA management from taking any action against the plaintiff hotels with further directions to explain their action in writing.

“On Sunday, February 23, all the roads leading to the restaurants were blocked with malafide intentions and in an unlawful manner,” Farukh Zia Sheikh, the plaintiffs’ lawyer told the bench.

He added that the DHA vigilance staff were telling the customers that the restaurants’ agreement has been cancelled, therefore, they have been shut down. This has caused losses worth millions to the plaintiffs as they had to waste cooked food, he added. The bench issued notice to DHA for March 6 and restrained it from blocking the roads. The bench further instructed the DHA to ensure that a senior officer is present in court at the next hearing, otherwise, its secretary would be summoned.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 28^th, 2014.