The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) on the directives of the Supreme Court has issued notices to owners of four bungalows constructed on the land of the Hill Park in District East.
The park is spread over 61 acres and was constructed in the 1960s. According to the KMC Anti-Encroachment Director Bashir Siddiqui, the residents have been asked in the notices to vacate the structures in seven days.
Meanwhile, Karachi Commissioner Iftikhar Shallwani has been informed through a letter that an anti-encroachment operation would be carried out on Thursday, February 27. The bungalows have been constructed over a slope of the Hill Park. “Whereas, in the year 1972, the Karachi Development Authority under an order transferred the administrative control of the premises of [the Hill Park] to KMC for maintenance as public recreation,” reads the notice pasted on the walls of the bungalows.
“And whereas, a residential plot number 38-G-1 measuring 600 square yards was created illegally and allotted to you [the owners] by the Pakistan Employers Cooperative Housing Society (PECHS) at the slope and within the premises of the amenity land of Hill Park.”
Under the Removal of Encroachment Act 2010, the residents of the bungalows have been told through the notices that they are illegal occupants of the said plot. Under the standing order of the Supreme Court, the notices said all illegal occupants within the premises of the Hill Park land should be immediately asked to leave.
The Supreme Court order further detailed that any other order that had been passed in this regard by any other court would have no effect. “You are hereby required to remove aforementioned encroachment or illegal occupation of the constructed property within the premises of public recreation land at the slope of the Hill Park within seven days from receipt hereof positively failing which illegal constructed structure will liable to be demolished at your risk,” the letter warns.
The KMC has also asked the commissioner to direct the East deputy commissioner to provide the support of police force along with lady police searchers and Rangers as well magisterial assistance to maintain the law and order during the anti-encroachment operation.
Speaking to The News, Siddiqui explained that the residents had obtained a stay order from the Sindh High Court due to which the corporation could not carry out the anti-encroachment operation. But now, the Supreme Court has vacated all previous stay orders in the case, he said, adding that permissions to construct the bungalows were given when Hashim Raza Zaidi was the KMC administrator and the Pakistan Peoples Party had a government in Sindh.