Karachi
The SSP East was warned of getting contempt proceedings initiated against him by a division bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC), on Thursday, if encroachments were not removed from a piece of land in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, as per the court’s previous order.
The observation came over an application of a person allotted land in Gulistan-e-Johar, block 6, which was encroached upon.
The court had on previous hearings ordered for the encroachments to be removed; however, the alleged contemnors including director Karachi Development Authority (KDA) as well as administrator and DSP district East did not comply with the court orders.
The court had ordered for all land grabbers who caused hindrance in implementation of court orders to be brought to book, and directed SSP concerned to provide protection in order for the applicant to get constructions carried out on the land.
The applicant submitted that land grabbers had again gotten the land occupied by getting people to establish their settlements while the police was not taking any action to stop the re-encroachment.
The court was informed that unauthorised construction was being raised on unallocated land despite the court’s direction to have the land auctioned.
He submitted that contempt of court proceedings be initiated against the alleged contemnors.
SHC’s division bench headed by Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah warned the SSP East to ensure the allottees were not dispossessed of their land again and observed that
contempt of court proceedings would be initiated against police officials if that happened.
SSP anti-encroachment said the allottees would be facilitated in taking possession of the plots and to raise constructions.
The court also directed the police to ensure no unlawful construction was carried out on the disputed land in violation of the court’s orders.
It further observed that people were facing hardships due to non-implementation of court orders and directed advocate general Sindh to submit a detailed report with regard to their implementation.
The court had earlier ordered removal of encroachment from blocks 10 and 11 of Gulistan-e-Johar on petition of Talat Ejaz and others against encroachment of their plots.
They had submitted that the allotted land had been encroached upon by land grabbers and authorities concerned were not taking any action to retrieve it.
They submitted that superior courts had already ordered handing over possession of land to its real allottees; however, the encroachers had built permanent houses on their land.