Evacuee property board moves court against KDA for ‘illegal use of 49 acres’

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday issued notices to the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) and others on a petition filed by the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) against the authority’s alleged illegal use of the board’s 49 acres for the North Karachi Township Housing Scheme.

The ETPB told the high court through its petition that 49 acres of land at survey numbers 57 and 58, situated at Deh Surjani, was attached to the Panjrapur Trust, and that the land was specified in Martial Law Regulation No 57 promulgated by the chief martial law administrator in 1983.

The evacuee property board’s counsel submitted to the SHC that the Supreme Court had also decided the litigation, according to which the country’s top court had declared that the property belonged to the ETPB.

The counsel said the revenue department had also issued a notification against transfer of the subject land without the approval or no-objection certificate of the evacuee property board. He claimed that the land in question was being used by the KDA for the North Karachi Township Housing Scheme without any lawful authority or approval of the ETPB.

He further submitted that the development authority had used the land for the housing scheme without paying any compensation or restoring the possession of the trust. The court was requested to direct the Karachi Development Authority to either pay compensation equal to the market value of such a land or provide alternative land of the same value to the Evacuee Trust Property Board.

The ETPB’s counsel also requested that the SHC direct the Mukhtiarkar of Gadap Town to cancel the mutation (transfer or change of title entry in revenue records) made by him as well as direct the revenue authorities to take action with regard to bogus entries made in the revenue records.

After the preliminary hearing of the evacuee property board’s petition, the high court’s division bench headed by Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi issued notices to the Board of Revenue, the Karachi Development Authority and others, calling for their comments to be filed on April 4.