Nine KMC officials suspended over inaction in Jehangir Park case

Karachi
The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation land director, its anti-encroachment director and eight other officers were suspended on Friday for failing to comply with a court’s orders to hand over the Jehangir Park to the Parsi community as it was donated to the city by Jehangir Kothari, a noted Parsi philanthropist of the city in the pre-Partition era, on the request of Jamshed Nusserwanjee Mehta, the first elected Mayor of Karachi.
KMC administrator Sajjad Abbasi suspended land director Aqeel Baig, anti-encroachment director Mazhar Khan, anti-encroachment additional director Korangi Moin Ghori, anti-encroachment deputy director Korangi Asif Jehta, estate director Muneer Ali Khan, estate additional director Sohail Kaimkhani, and estate deputy directors Akmal Dar, Kaleem Abbas and Irshad.
A citizen had submitted before the high court that the Jehangir Park was originally owned by the Parsi community and it should be handed over to its original owners.
The court had ordered removing encroachments from the park and handing it over to the community. The KMC administrator, taking a serious notice of these officers not complying with the orders and failing to produce the required documents before the court, issued their suspension order.
These nine officers were of grades 19, 18, 17 and 12. The administrator’s order was issued by human resources management director Musarrat Ali Khan.
Musarrat also notified that these officers would be issued charge-sheets.
According to a senior KMC officer, nine families were living unlawfully in the park and a mosque had been illegally built on some part of too. Some vendors had encroached upon the area of the park as well.
The KMC administrator had asked the families to transfer to a place in Korangi
These officers had failed to remove the encroachments from the park.
The officer said these encroachments were present in the park since the 1990s.
This park was a picnic spot for the citizens in the 1920s and had nine wells in its surroundings which provided potable water to the residents.
Jehangir Park was the venue of the first cricket tournament in Karachi in 1940.
The first mayor of Karachi had given a reception to the participating teams.
The officer said the wells were present all the way till the present Hari Majid in 1940, a water mashk was sold for two paisas. The water was fetched using pulleys.