KCR land vacation notices ‘undermine commissioner’s order’

The Pakistan Railways, contrary to the Karachi’s commissioner order to not touch any human settlements on the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR), issued notices for vacating the occupied area along the KCR Track.

An official of the Pakistan Railways told The News on Saturday that the order had been issued in light of a Supreme Court decision.

In line with the directives of the Supreme Court regarding the revival of the historical Karachi Circular Railway, a local train service, the Pakistan Railway Karachi Division will resume the anti-encroachment operation along the Loop Line as well as along with the Main Line on Monday (March 2).

According to a press statement from the Pakistan Railways, notices to the occupants for vacating the occupied areas along the Loop Line extending from Karachi City Station to Drigh Road and along with the Main Line stretching out till Landhi from Karachi City Station.

The second phase of the anti-encroachment operation is aimed at swiftly recovering and making available the requisite area for the KCR route.

Earlier, the KMC on the directives of the SC had issued notices to owners of four bungalows constructed on the land of the Hill Park in District East.

The park is spread over 61 acres and was constructed in the 1960s. According to the KMC Anti-Encroachment Director Bashir Siddiqui, the residents had been asked in the notices to vacate the structures in seven days.

Meanwhile, Karachi Commissioner Iftikhar Shallwani had been informed through a letter that an anti-encroachment operation would be carried out on February 27. The bungalows had been constructed over a slope of the Hill Park.

“Whereas, in the year 1972, the Karachi Development Authority under an order transferred the administrative control of the premises of [the Hill Park] to KMC for maintenance as public recreation,” read the notice pasted on the walls of the bungalows.

“And whereas, a residential plot number 38-G-1 measuring 600 square yards was created illegally and allotted to you [the owners] by the Pakistan Employers Cooperative Housing Society (PECHS) at the slope and within the premises of the amenity land of Hill Park.”