Staff Reporter
An anti-encroachment tribunal has issued notices to the federal, provincial and local government authorities on lawsuits against possible demolition of houses on the leased land during an ongoing operation along Gujjar Nullah.
The tribunal directed the LG secretary, Karachi administrator and commissioner, the chairman of the district municipal corporation East, the director general/chairman of the Sindh Katchi Abadi Authority and the chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to submit their replies till Feb 15. Residents of Federal B Area and New Karachi separately instituted two suits, citing the abovementioned federal, provincial and LG authorities as defendants.
Advocate Khawaja Altaf submitted that he had built a house in F B Area’s Block-5 after obtaining lease from the provincial Katchi Abadi department upon fulfilling all the requisite legal formalities in 2002.
He further submitted that the department had granted 99-year lease to him in respect of the subject plot.
The anti-encroachment tribunal will take up the matter again on 15th
However, the plaintiff said the officials of the KMC’s anti-encroachment department had marked his house as illegal and he came to know that the same construction would be demolished on Feb 18 or so.
going operation against illegal encroachments along Gujjar Nullah in order to retrieve the land from the alleged illegal occupants, the officials were going to demolish the houses built over duly leased plots.
In the second suit, the plaintiffs submitted that they had built houses in New Karachi after obtaining 99-year lease from the Karachi Development Authority, but KMC officials had also marked their houses as illegal and it was feared that the same would be demolished on Feb 18 or so.
