Sluggish pace of anti-encroachment efforts draws SC’s ire

With over three months having passed since it ordered the retrieval of encroached land in Karachi, the Supreme Court on Friday yet again censured the city’s civic authorities for their persistent failure in anti-encroachment efforts.

Expressing disapproval over the lax pace of efforts to reclaim 40,000 encroached amenity plots, the three-member SC bench headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan ordered the Karachi Development Authority (KDA), Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and other civic agencies to submit a compliance report within one month.

On the court’s query, the KDA’s counsel, Shahab Sarki, submitted that the authority had so far managed to remove encroachments from 1,700 amenity plots across the city. To this, Justice Gulzar Ahmed observed that 1,700 encroachments could not even be considered the tip of the iceberg as there were over 40,000 illegal structures on amenity plots in Karachi.

He also pointed out that there had been no action taken on court orders for the removal of a furniture market illegally established on an amenity plot in Gulistan-e-Jauhar. The KDA’s counsel replied that efforts were made to implement the court’s directives but there was a delay due to a lack of support from law enforcement agencies and of resources available to the KMC and KDA.

He, along with the KDA’s director general, submitted that the authority had taken possession of the retrieved land and it would use it in accordance with the rules to serve the best interests of Karachi’s citizens.

They assured the court that anti-encroachment efforts were continuing on a daily basis despite the lack of resources available to the KDA. The court was told a summary has been sent to the Sindh chief minister for increased allocation of funds.

The SC bench directed KDA and KMC to expedite efforts to reclaim encroachment amenity land and asked for an updated compliance report within a month. The KDA’s counsel was also told to file comments on applications of interveners who contend that the authority had wrongfully targeted structures that were already being used for communal purposes.

On November 29 last year, the Supreme Court had given KDA and KMC two months to remove more than 35,000 encroachments and illegal constructions from amenity plots at 112 sites in Karachi.

The SC’s two-member bench headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed had issued the directives on the petition of one Sabiha Parveen. At the hearing, the KDA chief had submitted a progress report claiming that encroachments and illegal constructions, including marriage halls, had been removed from 27 places across the city.

He had informed the court that more than 35,000 amenity plots across the metropolis had been encroached. Then on February 2 this year, the KDA submitted a follow-up report stating that over 1,500 encroachments had been removed from amenity plots. The authority told the SC that it may take six months to raze all encroachments.

The authority’s director for land management also told the apex court that the KDA director general had sent a summary to the Sindh chief minister and the secretary for house and town planning to initiate action/inquiries against all KDA officers found guilty of facilitating encroachments since 2003.

The KDA officer had stated that the Master Plan Department of the Sindh Building Control Authority had failed to provide the maps and verification of the 35,000 plots and 112 sites, causing delays in anti-encroachment efforts.

Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar, who has also appeared in court for this case, had also told journalists after a hearing that the Master Plan Department had not replied to the KMC’s letter regarding details of encroachment on amenity plots. He also said that a summary for allocation of Rs1200 million had been forwarded to the Sindh government for purchase of machinery needed for the anti-encroachment efforts.