In court: SHC restrains KMC from coercive action

The petitioner took KMC to court for failing to remove encroachments from an amenity plot

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday restrained the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) from taking any coercive action, such as re-auction, regarding a 2,288 square yard amenity plot in North Karachi till April 2.

The restraining order came on a petition filed by Haji Ahmed Chamdia, who had taken the KMC authorities to court for not removing illegal encroachments from Plot ST-1/1 in Block 12-D, North Karachi.

The petitioner had purchased the plot as the highest bidder in a public auction held by the corporation. He claimed that he had already deposited Rs12,298,000 through a pay order to the respondents but they had failed to remove encroachments and unauthorised constructions from the plot.

According to the petitioner, the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) Wing land management director had issued a letter to various KMC officers on November 20, 2014, requesting them to demolish the unauthorised constructions immediately.

Chamdia’s counsel, Advocate Usman Tufail Sheikh, said that his client feared that the officials would cancel his bid and re-auction the plot. He pleaded to the court to restrain them from doing so.

Issuing notices to the KMC administrator, the KDA Wing land management director, the North Karachi executive engineer and others to file their comments on April 2, the bench also restrained them from taking any coercive or adverse action against Chamdia till the next date of hearing.