SHC passes stay order against Korangi DC, Mukhtiarkar on Jinnah Foundation’s plea

A division bench of the Sindh High Court in Karachi issued notices on Friday to the deputy commissioner and the Mukhtiarkar of Korangi, the Karachi commissioner, the Sindh chief secretary and a Board of Revenue Sindh member during a hearing of a constitutional petition filed by Jinnah Foundation through its Managing Trustee, Liaquat H. Merchant.

Jinnah Foundation is a registered trust established in memory of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah. It runs a school in Bhitai Colony, Korangi Crossing, from Montessori to Matriculation having 1,400 students and 100 teachers was threatened with coercive action and demolition by the Korangi Mukhtiarkar in spite of establishing ownership and lawful use.

The high court passed the stay order restraining the respondents from interfering in the running of the school and from taking any coercive action against it, pending further hearing and orders by the high court.

The constitutional petition will now be heard further on December 14, 2018.

A similar unauthorised and unlawful action was taken by the deputy commissioner in 2014 when all the boundary walls around Jinnah Foundation were demolished, thereby exposing the female students and 100 female teachers to outside elements which also jeopardised the security of the school, its students and its teachers.

The boundary walls were rebuilt later by Jinnah Foundation at a considerable cost and now similar coercive action was threatened in spite of Jinnah Foundation being the lawful owner of four plots of land and four school buildings constructed thereon in accordance with building plans approved by Korangi Cantonment Board and permission being accorded for use of the small open area in front of the school as a play area for 1,400 students for which a boundary wall was necessary to prevent outside elements for encroaching into the school and breaching security of the students and teachers.

Permission for boundary walls was accorded by Korangi’s assistant commissioner. After the attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar in 2014, the Sindh Home Department and the Sindh Education Department directed all schools to raise their boundary walls up to 12 feet, install CCTV cameras and employ security guards.

These orders were complied with by Jinnah Foundation and the present action threatened by the Mukhtiarkar and the deputy commissioner runs contrary to the established policy of the Sindh government.