SC irked by govt’s failure to remove encroachments from govt land

The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday took exception to non-removal of encroachments on state lands in the province and directed the Sindh government to submit a report with regard to removal of encroachments from the state and forest land in the province.

Hearing applications with regard to the government’s failure to computerise the revenue record in the province and illegal occupation of public parks in Karachi, a two-member bench of the apex court comprising Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhel and Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi expressed dissatisfaction at the Sindh revenue department’s report with regard to removal of encroachments on the state land. The SC observed that the actual owners of lands were moving pillar to post to retrieve their assets while illegal occupation of lands by the land mafia was being facilitated.

The bench observed that people even did not find enough land to bury their loved ones in graveyards due to shortage of amenity land. The apex court asked a land utilisation department officer what steps had been taken to restore the government land from illegal occupation. The bench observed that SHOs were reluctant to take action against illegal occupations around Sohrab Goth and sought the Rangers’ assistance.

The SC observed that the 80 per cent backlog of cases could be reduced if land reforms were properly carried out by the revenue department. The senior member Board of Revenue submitted that law and order situation was created when revenue officials tried to free state land from illegal occupants.

The SC expressed concern at the helplessness of the revenue department and observed that it was unfortunate that departments passed their responsibilities on each other. Justice Rizvi observed that illegal goths were allowed to establish in Karachi under the Gothabad Scheme.

The apex court told the Sindh government to remove encroachments from state and forest lands and submit a compliance report within six weeks. The SC directed the Sindh inspector general of police and home department to provide assistance to the revenue department in its anti-encroachment drive through the relevant SSPs and deputy commissioners.

In the meantime, the SC directed the Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa (KP) government to submit reports with regard to amenity lands pertaining to parks and graveyards in KP on the next hearing. An additional advocate general KP submitted that computerisation of land record had been 95 per cent completed in all districts of KP. He added that the computerisation of land record will be completed in new settlement districts of the province within four years.