KARACHI: The Sindh government has allocated lands in different divisions of provincial headquarters, including Karachi, for allotment of plots to the families of army officers and government servants who died in the war against terror.
Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah has recently approved a summary for earmarking 300 acres of land in Karachi and 100 acres in each divisional headquarter for the families of martyrs.
In pursuance of the decision, the provincial government called reports from the Larkana and Sukkur Revenue Department executive district officers (EDOs) for identification of state land vide departmental letter number AS (Land)/LU/12/10 dated 28-07-2010. However, their replies are still awaited.
The Sindh Board of Revenue Land Utilisation Department in its report told the provincial chief secretary that an area of 100 acres from NC No30 of Deh Ganjo Takar in Hyderabad and 500 acres from NC No 30 of Deh Nagan in Karachi were earmarked in favour of the martyrs’ families vide letter MISC/SO-VI/218 dated 29-11-2010 and MISC/SO-VI/219 dated 29-11-2010, respectively.
Meanwhile, Mirpurkhas EDO Revenue vide letter No EDO(R)/R.B.R/594/2010 dated 01-10-2010 said that there were no compact pieces of 100 acres state land available in his district. Private/kabuli land was available which could be acquired under the land acquisition acts or by negotiations with owners.
Some quarters within the Sindh government have raised serious reservations about the identification of the martyrs and whether they hailed from Sindh or all over the country.
However, there were no clear answers from the people close to the Chief Minister’s House
“It [the government’s decision] must be for the martyrs belonging to Sindh, why from all over the country? But I am not clear about this. I will have to confirm it first,” Chief Minister’s Adviser Waqar Mehdi told Pakistan Today.
People inside the ruling party are reluctant over the decision to allot such a huge chunk of land to people from other provinces.
On condition of anonymity, they said that Sindh is already facing the burden of people from other provinces and countries, and this initiative would create more problems.
