PTCL wards off land grabbers’ attempts

KARACHI: Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL) has said that its properties located at Malir Halt in Karachi, just off Shahrah-e-Faisal are under the threat from the land grabbers who are using different tactics to deprive the company of its rightful ownership, a statement said on Thursday.

Speaking to newsmen, Syed Mazhar Hussain, chief human resource officer, PTCL, said that the land is owned and managed by PTCL since its beginning and it is mentioned in the records that the land under dispute was the property of the Telephone and Telegraph Department, which preceded the establishment of PTCL, and was in its possession since the 50s.

When PTCL was incorporated by the government of Pakistan under the Pakistan Telecommunication Act, 1996, in pursuance of the Section 35 of the act, it was transferred all properties, rights and liabilities and was given the authority to own, manage and control its assets, he added.

It was in the late 50s and 60s that PTCL’s predecessor organisation had acquired land in Malir for the establishment of telecommunications and training facilities.

A residential colony was also established for the staff working at the facilities.

For many years, the properties remained under the peaceful possession of the telecommunication authorities.

In 2013, he said a person, who was backed by influential persons of Sindh, approached the Sindh Civil Administration through an application and claimed that the land located in front of the Pakistan Printing Press belongs to him and not to PTCL, which was occupying it.

He was subsequently able to unlawfully occupy some 10 acres of the land. He employed over 100 persons to build a boundary wall around the encroached land, the PTCL official said.

Hussain said that later the federal government and some diplomatic channels intervened and the Sindh Civil Administration was forced to issue orders that the land should be vacated by the encroachers, and the people backing him, since it was the rightful property of PTCL.

For its part, Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited also submitted an application to the Sindh High Court and won an order of status quo in its favour, he added.

In December 2017, the same land mafia was again encouraged by influential persons and their lackeys to violate the SHC status quo order and encroach the Duct Factory, which PTCL had built on the land.

The boundary wall of the Duct Factory was demolished by the land grabbers, while the PTCL security guards and other staff were severely manhandled. The PTCL equipment stored at the premises was also destroyed, he added.