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Thursday March 28, 2024

Operation starts tomorrow to get illegally occupied government houses vacated

By our correspondents
September 23, 2018

The Sindh government has formed a plan to get hundreds of official residences vacated that had been under illegal occupation in various parts of the city.

An estate section officer of the services, general administration and coordination department has written a letter to the Karachi commissioner to inform him about the planned operation to recover illegally occupied houses. The operation is set to start on Monday (tomorrow) and it will be carried out with the assistance of police and Rangers.

The letter is titled ‘Schedule for ejectment procedure regarding vacation of government accommodations from non-policy/unauthorised occupants’.

The Supreme Court had earlier ordered the government to get the illegally occupied government residences vacated. According to the letter, a meeting was held on September 14 with the home secretary in chair to discuss implementation of the apex court order. The meeting decided to start operations against illegal occupants on September 24. The operations would be overseen by committees under the assistant commissioners concerned.

According to the schedule of the operations, the deputy commissioner South and assistant commissioner Garden will carry out an operation on Monday to get Humayun House vacated, which is located in Garden West in District South.

On the same day, the deputy commissioner East and assistant commissioner Ferozabad will take action to end undue occupation of government houses in GOR (Government Officer Residence)-II, Sindh Muslim Cooperative Housing Society situated in District East. The deputy commissioner Central and assistant commissioner North Nazimabad will also hold an operation on Monday to get illegally occupied government residences vacated in GOR-III Shadman Town located in District Central.

On the next day on September 25, the deputy commissioner and assistant commissioner concerned will carry out an operation to end undue occupation of official houses in GOR-I, Bath Island situated in District South.

On September 26, the deputy commissioner South along with assistant commissioner Civil Lines will take action against undue occupation of government houses in Shireen Jinnah Colony and Collector’s Lane near CM House in District South. The letter also states that all departments under the provincial government along with civic bodies, such as the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, and utility companies, such as the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board and K-Electric, have been directed to assist in the operations against illegal occupations of government houses.

Copies of the letter have also been sent to the Sindh Rangers director general, home secretary, additional inspector general of police, deputy commissioners (South, East, and Central), chief secretary and assistant commissioners in the city in areas of Civil Lines, Garden, Ferozabad, and North Nazimabad.

Notice challenged

Government employees challenged the Sindh administration’s notice to vacate their respective accommodations through a petition they filed in the high court.

Petitioner Qalb Hussain and others said they were employed by the Sindh administration and were provided government accommodations in Shadman Town and Bath Island in accordance with the relevant rules.

They said the rents of the accommodations are regularly deducted from their salaries, adding that they were neither retired nor transferred out of Karachi, yet the government had issued them with notices to vacate their respective accommodations. The court was requested to set aside the notice to vacate that was issued by the provincial government and restrain the authorities from dispossessing them until the disposal of their petition. The high court sought comments by October 6.