Unwelcome occupants: SHC calls for Rangers DG’s comments about illegal encroachment

KDA officers allege that the Rangers have been occupying their bungalows since 2006.

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Monday re-issued its notice to the Sindh Rangers director-general to file comments regarding the illegal occupation of the Karachi Development Authority Officers' Cooperative Housing Society (KDAOCHS) by the paramilitary troopers since 2006.

Twenty officers of the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) had gone to court, alleging that the Rangers had encroached upon their plots. They named the Sindh Rangers director-general, KDAOCHS and senior members of the Sindh Board of Revenue (SBR) as respondents.

The petitioners said that they had been allotted 202-square-yard plots with bungalows on them in the society, which is located near the National Stadium. They maintained that while they were assigned the plots after completing all legal formalities and paying their dues, KDA and SBR delayed handing over the physical possession of the land to them. During this time, the Sindh Rangers illegally occupied their bungalows in collusion with members of KDA and SBR, they alleged in their identical petitions.

"In 2006, the defunct KDA allowed the Sindh Rangers to reside in the bungalows on the COD hills in a temporary arrangement in order to allow them to perform their duties," the petitioners recalled. "Since then, we have been waiting to take possession of the plots but the Rangers have yet to vacate the premises."

Their lawyer, S Zaki Muhammad, said that the petitioners were suffering massive losses due to the illegal occupation of their lands. "This is a violation of Articles 23 and 24 of the Constitution," he argued, pleading the court to declare the Rangers' occupation of the plots as illegal.

The court was also requested to order the Rangers DG to immediately vacate the premises with further direction to the KDAOCHS and SBR to hand over the land to the petitioners.

When the matter was taken up, the two judges found that no report had been submitted in response to the petitioners' allegations. They repeated the notice to the Rangers chief to file comments by February 18.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th, 2015.