Encroachments: SHC questions china-cutting of amenity land

Petitioner claims thousands of square yards of amenity land have been divided into small plots and sold.

KARACHI: The city administrator, the revenue department and the buildings control authorities have been directed to explain the 'china-cutting' (illegal carving) of thousands of square yards of amenity land and their sale in violation of the law.

Headed by Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, a division bench, directed the Karachi administrator, commissioner, the director-general of the Sindh Building Control Authority, the provincial board of revenue's senior member and the Aziz Bhatti police SHO to submit their replies by the next date of hearing.

The issue of the illegal sale of amenity land was taken to the court by a civil rights campaigner, Rana Faizul Hasan.

The petitioner told the judges that the land of nine amenity plots, measuring between 15,000 to 16,000 square yards, was earlier being used as a parking lot (Nizarat) for unclaimed vehicles. The land in question, which is located near the Aziz Bhatti Park in Block 10 of Gulshan-e-Iqbal Town, has now been divided into smaller plots and encroached upon illegally, he claimed.

Hasan regretted that several applications were sent to the relevant authorities to save the amenity plots, but the same were pending for over a year.

He argued that the respondents were legally bound to protect the amenity lands, which they were not doing.

The court was pleaded to order the official respondents to stop the china-cutting of the lands and save it from the encroachers.

During Friday's proceedings, the bench had issued notices to the KMC's administrator, the commissioner, senior member of the board of revenue, the SBCA DG and SHO Azizabad to file their comments. The hearing was adjourned to a date to be notified by the office later.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 19^th, 2015.