Sindh govt to continue drive to retake illegally-occupied land in Karachi: Murtaza Wahab

KARACHI: Sindh Law and Environment Adviser Barrister Murtaza Wahab has said the recent act of blocking the M-9 Motorway between Karachi and Hyderabad to protest the demolition of farmhouses of Leader of Opposition in Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Shaikh was a violation of the decision of the provincial apex committee.

“The blocking of roads as reaction to a lawful government action was a shameful act,” said Wahab, who also acts as the spokesman for the Sindh government, while speaking at a press conference here on Monday.

“The FIR was registered (after the lawful government’s action was resisted) as they viewed the lodging of the case an unjust act. Isn’t your act to illegally occupy thousands of acres of land an unjust act?” he asked while speaking about the opposition leader.

He reiterated the resolve of the government to continue with its anti-encroachment drive to retrieve precious government land under illegal occupation in the city.

He said the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had attempted to make controversial and politicise a good administrative action of the provincial government to end encroachments on government land in Karachi.

“The PTI attempted to politicise this campaign as they never came forward earlier when the house of any poor man was razed. But this campaign will continue as we are going to retrieve the occupied land from the encroachers,” he said.

Wahab said the anti-encroachment campaign would continue wherever such land existed in the city and had been under illegal occupation.

He said the action of the government would continue regardless of the influence and status of the encroachers. “Please identify to us wherever the land is under illegal occupation as the government’s action will take place there,” he said while addressing media persons.

He said the PTI leader had attempted to make Karachi hostage for the sake of his own vested interests.He said the Supreme Court had given directives that the lease of the land (in the suburbs of Karachi) for building poultry farms should not be extended beyond 30 years.

Barrister Wahab also criticised the recent act of federal government of promulgating an “unconstitutional” ordinance about the procedure of the Senate polls.He said the successive acts of the federal government had been causing sheer uncertainty about the economic, legal and political fronts in the country.He claimed that prospective foreign investors were not coming to the country due to this uncertainty.