SHC moved against conversion of military land into marriage halls

Court asks defence secretary, others to file comments on April 8

The Sindh High Court issued notices to the defence secretary, the Army Welfare Trust and other respondents on Wednesday over a petition against the conversion of military land into marriage halls near the FTC flyover.

Dr Waqar Saeed and other citizens submitted in the petition that plot number 183 near the FTC flyover on Korangi Road had been sanctioned for the purpose of a medical supply depot, but it was illegally being allotted to a private company for setting up six marriage halls.

They said the private company was displaying advertisements for renting marriage halls and marquees from Rs100,000 to Rs500,000 though no auction of the land had been conducted by the relevant authorities.

The petitioners’ counsel, Khawaja Shamsul Islam, submitted that the land was earmarked for defence purposes and could not be used for any commercial purpose, including marriage halls. He also referred to the federal government decision of the 1970s in which it was decided that all defence land would be transferred to the Sindh government except Fowler Lines, Bizerta Lines and a small portion of Iqbal Shaheed Road. 

He said plot categories of A-1 and A-2 could not be used for any other purpose except defence purposes, and requested the court to direct the authorities to cancel the illegal allotment of the plot for marriage halls.

After the preliminary hearing of the petition, a division bench, headed by Justice Mohammad Junaid Ghaffar, issued notices to the defence secretary, the military estate officer, Karachi cantonment, Army Welfare Trust, Karachi Cantonment Board and other respondents, and called their comments on April 18.

 

KMC installment 

The Sindh High Court restrained the provincial government from deducting the monthly installment of Rs26.454 million from the Octrai and Zila Tax share of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) till further orders.

The interim order was issued over a KMC lawsuit that challenged a decision of the government whereby an amount of Rs1.269 billion was released to K-Electric as a settlement of its purported recoverable dues from the corporation by labelling the same as grant-in-aid/special grant.

The plaintiff’s counsel, Sameer Ghazanfar, stated that Rs1.269 billion was found payable by the plaintiff to K-Electric from its 75 connections and a summary was moved to the chief minister on November 3, 2016, to approve the reconciled amount as grant-in-aid in favour of the plaintiff for payment to K-Electric. 

He submitted that the finance secretary without any authority or consultation with the mayor or the deputy mayor of Karachi, sent the summary to the chief minister for the adjustment of the special grant from the Octrai and Zila Tax share through a monthly installment of Rs.26.454 million per month for the next four years.

He said that as per the established practice between the KMC and the provincial government, the grant-in-aid was deemed to be non-recoverable and, considering the fact the plaintiff came under the leadership of the elected mayor and under section s79 and 80 of the Sindh Local Government Act, it was the responsibility of the mayor to manage and govern financial and executive administration and control the proceedings of all employees of the KMC.

The counsel said the finance and energy secretaries took it upon themselves to plead for a grant-in-aid or a special grant in favour of the plaintiff without consulting the mayor.

He sought interim relief and requested the court to restrain the government from deducting Rs26.454 million from the OZT share as the KMC was already facing an acute shortfall of funds and was finding it difficult to even release the monthly salaries of its employees.

He submitted that if the OZT share was deducted, the KMC would fail to manage its financial affairs.

The court issued notices to the advocate general, the finance secretary and others for April 12 and in the meantime restrained the government from deducting the monthly installment from the OZT share of the plaintiff till the next date of hearing.