Seizures in Sindh: Up to 17 properties illegally held by govt depts, reveals report

Says land being utilised by different state institutions in several parts of Sindh.

ISLAMABAD:

Several government departments in Sindh are illegally occupying more than a dozen properties of the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB), reveals a report available with The Express Tribune.

The report – submitted by ETPB before the Supreme Court – identifies a total of seventeen such properties.

According to the report, Karachi Development Authority (KDA) is illegally utilising 12 acres of the ETPB land in Deh Gujro for the construction of roads, sewerage and water supply lines.

The same department has also acquired 43 acres of land in Deh Khari Lakhi [for its township scheme] and 60 acres of land in scheme 24.

City District Government Karachi (CDGK) is using 38 acres of land in Safari Park, Hussain Hazara Goth and Juma Khan Goth.

The CDGK is utilising four acres of the ETPB land for installation of poles and passing a high tension line wire, and five acres of land in the construction of roads in the locality of Safoora Goth, Den Sognal.

According to the report, Pakistan Railways occupies 28 acres of the ETPB land and uses it for its circular railway project in the area of Deh Okewari and Deh Gujro in Karachi.

In Hyderabad, Sindh University Old Campus occupies 16,692 square yards.  On 1,000 sq ft area of the land, branches of Pakistan Post Office and Habib Bank Limited have also been established with the permission of the university without prior approval of the ETPB.

“Both offices are working under the university administration. However, an area measuring 9606 sq yds has already been sold out to the occupants with approval of federal government,” the report further states.

It reveals that Sindh Law College Hyderabad is built on an area measuring 2,830 sq yd, which is required to the transferred to Education Department in the light of cabinet decision 1984 but law college administration has not applied for this purpose.

“A commercial market, comprising 16 shops, is also illegally constructed by the law college on a portion measuring 1,000 sq yd,” it adds.

The report says four properties, situated in Rohri district, are also illegally occupied by the health department and the local government of Sindh.

Meanwhile, a senior official also told The Express Tribune that the ETPB has also submitted details of its 43 properties, situated in the province of Punjab. “Most of these properties are illegally occupied by different state departments,” he said.

He said three properties of the ETPB are illegally occupied in K-P while only one property is occupied by Municipal Corporation Quetta.

Around 85,500 acres of the ETPB land is situated in Punjab, 21,700 acres in Sindh, 2,300 acres in the K-P and just two acres in Balochistan.

The top court on October 2, 2013 had declared the sale agreement between DHA and ETPB for Auqaf land null and void.

The court had also ruled that numerous illegalities, irregularities and violations of financial instructions had been committed in the transactions entered into by the ETPB with DHA Lahore and Islamabad regarding the development of gurdwara lands.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 18^th, 2014.