SHC suspends letter banning entry of house owner in Malir cantonment

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has suspended a letter of the housing assistant director of the Askari-V Malir Cantonment with regard to banning the entry of a house owner and his family in the garrison area and cancellation of their property.

The order came recently on a petition of Zaheer Ahmed and others against the housing assistant director’s letter that barred his and his family members’ entry in limits of the Malir garrison.

The petitioners informed the SHC that they had purchased a property in the Malir cantonment from its original allottee Brig Azfar Ali Syed through the registered power of attorney executed in favour of the petitioners.

The petitioners’ counsel, Malik Khushhal Khan, submitted that due to some parking issue, there was a dispute of the petitioners with their neighbour who lodged a frivolous complaint on misleading grounds to the Askari authorities.

He submitted that the housing assistant director of the Askari colonies without giving opportunity of hearing to the petitioners, issued the impugned letter banning the entry of Ahmed and his family members in the Malir garrison.

The counsel submitted that the impugned letter was unlawful and was issued without giving the petitioners a fair opportunity of hearing and the same was in violation of natural justice. A division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi after the preliminary hearing of the petition issued notices to the defence secretary, assistant director housing of Askari colonies and others, calling their comments within four weeks.

The high court, in the meantime, suspended the operation of the impugned letter issued by the respondents and restrained them from taking any coercive action against the petitioners pursuant to the impugned letters.