Families file review application in SC against house demolitions

Families affected by the operation of clearing the Gujjar and Orangi storm water drains of encroachments have filed a review application in the Supreme Court against demolitions of their houses and dispossession of land without any immediate substantive compensation or temporary rehabilitation.

The SC had ordered the Sindh government, the National Disaster Management Authority and the Karachi administrator on June 14 to ensure that the land of the nullahs and the rights of way are cleared, and the occupants of the land are suitably compensated and rehabilitated.

The petitioners’ counsel Faisal Siddiqui said in the review plea that the consequence of the impugned order was the continuation of demolitions of thousands of houses, buildings and structures, and the dispossession of over 50,000 people without any immediate substantive compensation or temporary rehabilitation.

Siddiqui said that the impugned order has completely failed to give any finding on the issue of whether any demolitions can be conducted by the government and its relevant authorities for building a 30-feet-wide road on each side of the drains.

He said that the impugned order was passed for the removal of encroachments without any finding or determination as to the length and breadth of such drains, and their rights of way. He added that the determination was critical because without an authentic mapping of the exact dimensions of the drains and their rights of way, no general order could be passed for the wholesale demolitions of houses and dispossession of over 50,000 people.

The counsel said that there were 38 major and 540 minor drains that were apparently encroached upon, but the government and its agencies had acted in a discriminatory manner by conducting hardly any demolitions for clearing drains in upmarket neighbourhoods, such as DHA, and others parts of the city.

He said that half of the demolished houses did not relate to the clearing of the Gujjar and Orangi drains but to the paving of the 30-feet-wide roads on both sides of these nalas that were neither necessary nor had been specifically ordered by the court.

He requested the court to review and set aside the June 14 order with regard to the clearing of the lands of both the Gujjar and Orangi drains and their rights of way.