The Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) on Wednesday ordered authorities to end the illegal occupation of lands across Sindh owned by the government, including those in Karachi, and the resumption of green belts.
The directive from a three-member bench headed by the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Gulzar Ahmed came during the hearing at the SC’s Karachi Registry of a case related to the computerisation of land records.
In a report he presented to the court, Qazi Shahid Pervaiz, a senior member of the Sindh Board of Revenue, acknowledged that government lands in the province had been illegally occupied, with more than 240,000 bogus entries identified in the province from 1985 till date.
Over 1,100 of these entries were pending a judicial review while more than 1,000 fake ones had already been removed, according to the report submitted by Pervaiz. It added that 70 million documents have been computerised across Sindh, to which the chief justice remarked that “cases of forged documents are being filed in high courts even today”.
“Has any government land been spared in the province,” Justice Ahmed inquired, while Justice Sajjad Ali Shah observed that the land records in Thatta contained numerous discrepancies. “Everyone has built villages of their own,” he noted. On the other hand, the court also ordered the removal of encroachments from playgrounds and parks, ending the illegal occupation of lands belonging to the forest and irrigation department, and replanting of trees there. Moreover, the SC has given the CBC, DHA and Karachi Water and Sewerage Board two weeks to submit a report on a mechanism to resolve DHA’s water crisis. Advertisement
Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed heard the case on Wednesday and censured the officials for discriminate water supply. “If you are giving water give it to everyone. What about those who can’t get tankers to their homes?” he asked.
Do the cantonment areas also face water shortages, he asked. “If they don’t get water then a major would go lock up the water board staff,” he said.
The CBC said it isn’t getting enough water from the KWSB. DHA has two lines, one has water and the other doesn’t, said Justice Ahmed.You give more than enough water to the ones you want to, noted the CJP. He called on the authorities to give water to residents of DHA indiscriminately. We get water tankers to our houses, said the judge, who is from Karachi. “Everyone should get water, not just us.”
