SHC seeks CDGK record of sold amenity plots

Petitioner's letter renders sale of plots reserved for public use 'unlawful and illegal'.

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has told the city government to furnish a list of all amenity plots that have been sold.

These plots are reserved for public use, ie, parks, hospitals, graveyards, dispensaries.

The issue was raised by columnist and campaigner for civic facilities Ardeshir Cowasjee, who wrote a letter to the chief justice of the SHC who converted it into a constitutional petition.

Cowasjee attached as evidence a number of advertisements that appeared in local English daily newspapers for the sale of plots earmarked for the benefit of the general public.

The petitioner argues that auctioning or selling these plots would adversely affect them. This is unlawful and illegal on the grounds that once land is reserved for a particular amenity, its purpose cannot be changed according to successive judgments by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

When the matter was taken up last week, the city government’s EDO Law Manzoor Ahmed sought time to gather the information and file a statement along with a report from the authorities to the effect that no public amenity plots had been sold.

After the EDO made this statement, the bench adjourned the proceedings with the direction that he file the leases of the plots. The court also directed that a copy of such records should be provided in advance to Cowasjee, the petitioner.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2010.