Wary of encroachers, KU sends law enforcers to protect land

Claimants arrive at site to supervise the marking of their alleged 1,500-square-yard plot.

KARACHI: In the second incident of its kind in the last two years, a religious group has claimed possession of a chunk of the land that was originally allotted to the Karachi University (KU) in 1954.

The claimants, escorted by the Gulistan-e-Jauhar police, arrived at the site on Thursday morning to “supervise” the marking of their alleged 1,500-square-yard plot -- located across the existing university campus -- where they intended to construct a mosque. The university administration had, however, sent the Rangers and campus security personnel to thwart the “bold move”, said the KU campus security advisor Prof Dr Khalid Iraqi.

The claimant, Muhammad Iqbal, who identified himself as a leader of Sunni Ittehad Council, claimed that he was in possession of the land’s ownership papers. “We have legally acquired the piece of land through the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) in January,” he claimed while talking to The Express Tribune.

The KU estate officer, Imran Tahir, had, however declared the claim “totally preposterous” as he explained that the specific piece of land was a part of around 7.5 acres of unused land that the institution owns across the road of its existing camps. “As per the approved map of the university in the year 1954, the government had allocated a total of 1,279 acres of land for the institution,” he said.

Meanwhile, the KU deputy registrar for legal affairs, Asif Mukhtar, said that the claimants, when it was demanded by the university, had refused to provide the copies of the alleged ownership papers that they claimed to hold. “If they think that they can takeover by use of force, then they are wrong for the university will not let it happen.”

Mukhtar explained that the dispute on the unused 7.5 acres of land began in the year 1997, when the KDA, claiming the land as its property, prepared a map and started allotting plots to people. “The university administration had filed at least three litigations against the KDA and the matter is still in the court,” he said.

Earlier in 2012, another mosque had sprung up within a two-day period, as around 200 men, escorted by armed private guards, had gathered to “supervise” the construction of the mosque on the New Year’s Eve.

Pir Abdullah Mazhar Shah, administrator of the said mosque, was in possession of land ownership papers, allegedly issued in the name of Hassan Bin Sabit Trust by the KDA in 1997.

The university administration then decided to move an application in the Sindh High Court against the illegal construction of the mosque on university land and acquired a stay order. The mosque’s administration had displayed the name of Mufti Muhammad Naeem, principal of the Jamia Binoria International, as supervisor of this ‘project’. When approached by The Express Tribune back in January 2012, Mufti Naeem, however, clarified that he had asked the mosque’s administration to remove his name immediately. “Earlier, they [the mosque’s administration] had told me that the land was legally bought through the KDA,” he said, adding that, “When the controversy emerged, I directly talked with the then KU vice chancellor Dr Pirzada Qasim and he confirmed that Karachi University was the real owner of this land.”

Mufti Naeem stated that he had told the vice chancellor about taking every possible legal action against those who had confiscated the university’s land.

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