KU clears out illegal KWSB office, shops from premises

Karachi
The University of Karachi’s management conducted special raids on Wednesday to remove encroachments from its land.
KU campus secretary Dr Muhammad Zubair told The News that the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board was using a piece of the university’s land as its site office for its mega K-III Project.
The KU had given permission to the KWSB to temporarily set up its office there but in the recent past, the latter had built two houses there having four bedrooms each.
Campus officer Muhammad Asif said a land measuring around 500 or 600 square yards was being used to construct these houses.
KU officials and labourers were also threatened by the KWSB staff at the site.
They also said KWSB official Aziz Khanzada had warned that he would discontinue water supply to the university if its administration tried to demolish the houses.
Besides, they also accused the KWSB official of using abusive language with them.
However, another KWSB officer, Major (retd) Muhammad Nawaz Gondal, reached the campus and handled the situation by assuring the KU administration that the board’s leftover machines and tools would be removed and the land vacated after consulting the senior officials on its status.
The KU administration said the water board had no authority to start a construction on the university’s land and the site office was not needed anymore as the K-III Project had been completed a long time ago.
The KWSB management, on various occasions, was requested to vacate the land, but public utility did not bother to respond.
The campus officer said on the directives of KU vice chancellor Professor Muhammad Qaiser, registrar Professor Dr Moazam Ali Khan had written a letter to the KWSB on Wednesday.
“The water board has been told to collect its equipment and tools at the earliest from the KU, otherwise the university would not be responsible for them,” he added.

Extension efforts foiled
Dr Zubair said the KU had also obstructed the administration of a mosque from extending its external walls. “There is a mosque illegally constructed on KU land outside the campus. The unauthorised construction began in recent years and although the matter is in the court, there are attempts to further expand it.”
Dr Zubair, who is also the chairman of the university’s Islamic history department, said the KU team found that labourers were raising the external walls of the disputed mosque and had also dug up a nearby piece of land.
“The KU officials made them stop the work and warned them that they would take the matter to the court”
In February, the Sindh High Court, headed by Justice Munib Akhtar, had restrained the construction of a seminary over a 3,000-square-yard land on the KU premises, he recalled.
The KU had filed a lawsuit against the administrator of the Jamia Fareedia Moin-ul-Quran for encroaching upon the KU land with help of corrupt employees of the defunct Karachi Development Authority.

Shops cleared
Dr Zubair said the KU also removed against illegal constructed shops and roadside vendors on KU land in front of the its main entrance, the Silver Jubilee Gate.
Despite frequent reminders and warnings, a real estate agent had put up huge billboards on the university’s land.
The KU also removed those signboards, Dr Zubair added.
He said the KU authorities had also issued a notice to the fast food outlet built on the university’s land.
“A large power generator was placed on our land while the fast food outlet was paying around Rs1,20, 000 in lieu of rent to unauthorised people instead of the KU administration,” he added.

Illegal farms
He also said before Eid-ul-Fitr, the KU had recovered a large piece of its land after removing a cattle farm that had around 53 animals including 35 buffalos, two horses and goats.
“The ‘Babu ka Bara’ was being operated by the employees of the transport department without any permission. The cattle farm was set up inside the campus.”
Around 14.5 acres of KU property was being illegally used as agriculture land and the people involved in it were also using the university’s power and water supply as well as other facilities. Some other people were using 10.5 and 6.5 acres separately for the same purpose and they too were removed before Eid,” said Dr Zubair.