Coveted commodity: SHC calls records of 1,500-year-old temple’s land

Petitioner claimed the temple management was illegally occupying adjacent plots

KARACHI: Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) authorities have been asked to produce documents before the Sindh High Court (SHC), pertaining to the ownership of land on which the 1,500-year-old Shri Panjmukhi Hanuman Mandir in Soldier Bazaar is built.

A division bench, headed by Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, issued this direction to the KMC legal adviser, Syed Sultan Ahmed, on a petition by the residents against the alleged illegal occupation of the land by the temple's management.

Muhammad Ashfaq Khan Ghouri, a resident of the locality, had taken the local government secretary, the director-general of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA), the director of the Katchi Abadies Department and caretaker of the Hanuman Mandir, Maharaj Ramnath alias Parkash, to court.

He said the provincial local government department had, in 1987, acquired the land of various colonies in Soldier Bazaar, including Roshan Colony and Mehtab Colony, in order to grant lease to these slums. Mehtab Colony was declared a ‘katchi abadi’ through an official notification in 1989, he recalled. The Hanuman Mandir is situated on Plot No 5, covering 500 square yards as shown in the  KMC site plan, he added.

Ghouri blamed the temple's caretaker, Maharaj Ramnath, of also occupying the four adjoining plots in connivance with officers of the SBCA. He added that the caretaker has initiated unauthorised constructions without obtaining SBCA permission.

On Monday, KMC's legal adviser requested for time to file relevant documents regarding the land's ownership. Meanwhile, Advocate Zubair Ahmed Khaskheli filed to be granted power of attorney on behalf of the temple's caretaker.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2015.