The Sindh High Court (SHC) gave until May 31 to the Sindh chief secretary (CS), a senior member of the Board of Revenue (BoR) and the Lyari Development Authority (LDA) managing director among other respondents to submit their comments on the many land distribution schemes being launched across the province.
The SHC division bench comprising Justice Maqbool Baqar and Justice Ghulam Sarwar Korai issued the notices after hearing the preliminary arguments on a constitutional petition filed by United Human Rights Organisation Secretary General Rana Faizul Hassan, pleading the court that a suitable policy be evolved for distribution of residential and agricultural lands among poor peasants and deserving people without any political pressures.
The petitioner had submitted that the Sindh chief minister (CM) has initiated several schemes for providing land to poor peasants across the province. On February 3, the CM had issued directives to the Sindh Revenue Department to computerise the records of all districts of the province while announcing distribution of 53,000 acres land among poor peasants in the Katcha area, Korai added.
Quoting a news item published in national newspapers, the plaintiff stated that at a high-level meeting held earlier, the Sindh CM was informed by a member of Gothabad scheme that out of 700 goths, 472 were regularised in Gadap, Kemari and Bin Qasim towns, while a survey was underway to regularise remaining goths.
Expressing concerns over possible corruption in such schemes, the appellant submitted that due to lack of transparent policy, the higher officials may adopt a biased approach while distributing the lands and commit corruption that may deprive the poor peasants from their right to owning land. Korai further stated in his petition that various such schemes were launched in the past but failed as the lands were distributed without any check and balance system and lack of proper and transparent policy.
He added that no serious initiative has been taken so far to probe corruption by the government officials and the representatives involved. The plaintiff further submitted that several ministers, politicians and officials were reportedly accused of irregularities in such schemes but no one has been taken to courts. Citing Sindh CM, CS, BoR ministry, LDA and Gothabad Scheme among others as respondents, the petitioner pleaded that a proper and transparent policy should be introduced to ensure distribution of lands and it must be ensured that the lands are given to the deserving people.
