Original documents of PECHS park sought

Amenity plot is allegedly under the illegal occupation of PPP leader’s son

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has directed the ministry of housing and works to submit the original layout plan of an amenity plot in PECHS, which has allegedly under the illegal occupation of a Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader's son.

A division bench, headed by Justice Irfan Saadat Khan, also warned to personally summon the ministry's secretary if the original layout plan of the amenity land is not submitted to the court within 10 days.

These directives came on a petition filed by Samiuddin Qureshi, who had taken the local government secretary, Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and some private persons, including Mohsin Zulfiqar Qaimkhani and Feroze, to court. According to the petitioner, Qaimkhani, who is the son of PPP's local leader Zulfiqar Ali Qaimkhani, had illegally occupied an amenity plot, No. H/1-51 in PECHS Block-6.

He claimed that the land in question has originally been allocated for a public park in the housing society's layout plan. Qaimkhani and Feroze have taken over the land in connivance with the relevant officials, which is in violation of the layout plan as well as other relevant laws, he said.

Qureshi alleged that the respondents have even raised construction in an illegal and unauthorised manner despite the fact that the amenity land could not be used for any other purpose other than it was originally earmarked for.

Back in 2006, the high court had ordered the relevant authorities to get the park land retrieved from the clutches of the encroachers, said the petitioner, adding that the court had directed the departments to demolish the illegal constructions through another order dated January 31, 2007.

He stated that the authorities responsible for protecting amenity land are taking no practical measures to protect the space in compliance with the court's repeated directives.

The court was pleaded to declare that the land in question as originally reserved for a public park for the residents. Thus directives may be issued to the authorities to protect it from the encroachers. A direction for a departmental inquiry against the officials involved in the act was also sought.

Taking up the matter, the two judges observed that previously the lawyer representing the ministry of housing and works was directed to submit the original layout plan of the area. However, the ministry's lawyer requested for more time to submit it. Allowing the request, the judges directed the lawyer to submit original layout plan within 10 days with a warning that, in case they failed to do so, the ministry's secretary would personally be summoned.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 13^th, 2015.