Investigating the matter: SHC sends official to look into Do Darya blockade

Dispute between DHA and restaurant owners going on for more than a year.

KARACHI:

The Sindh High Court (SHC) repeated on Thursday its directions to the court Nazir to inspect the roads leading to, and the illegal constructions on the Do Darya food street in Defence Housing Authority (DHA) Phase VIII.

The famous food street along the sea was blocked allegedly by the DHA, citing security threats. The Nazir, a court official, would submit an inspection report to the court before April 14, when the judges will take up the matter involving a row between the restaurants owners and the DHA.

Earlier, on February 27, the court had restrained the DHA from putting up any barriers on the roads leading to the food street in Phase VIII. A few days before the order, DHA officials had placed barricades on all the main roads leading to the restaurants along the shore, allegedly to victimise their owners for having filed a case in the court against the housing authority. The authority had cited ‘security threats’ as the main reason behind the decision but restaurants owners claimed it was a deliberate act to hurt them financially.

The fallout

In July 2013, the housing authority wanted to evict the Do Darya restaurants but their owners managed to get a stay order from SHC.

According to restaurant owners, 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 on Beach Avenue at a monthly rent of Rs100,000 each. The lease was for an initial period of two years starting from June 5, 2010, and ending on April 30, 2012, with an annual increase in rent of 10 per cent.

As a result of the agreement, the restaurants spent more than Rs6 million on the construction and the defendants assured them that they would not interfere with their businesses as the said land was valued at far less than the agreed rent valuation.

The terms and conditions also stated that the agreement was renewable beyond those two years but added that 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 providing a lawful justification.  On July 27, 2013, the SHC restrained the DHA management from taking any action against the plaintiff restaurants, with further directions to explain their action in writing.

‘Victimisation’

“All the roads leading to the restaurants were blocked on February 23 with mala fide intentions and in an unlawful manner to victimise the restaurant owners,” stated the plaintiffs’ lawyers, Farukh Zia Sheikh and Munir Ahmed Panhwar.

They added that the DHA vigilance staff has been telling customers that the restaurants’ agreement was cancelled, due to which they have been shut down. This has caused losses worth millions of rupees to the plaintiffs as they have had to waste cooked food and are still incurring expenses, he added.

When the matter came up for hearing on Thursday, the lawyers representing the restaurants pointed out that the court had previously appointed its Nazir as the commissioner to inspect the site to establish its factual position. However, for some reason, the official could not visit the area, they added.

Justice Shafi Siddiqui, who headed the bench, asked the Nazir to inspect the site on Saturday and submit a report before April 14.

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