Despite court orders, Pakistan Rangers-Sindh is apparently reluctant to pay over Rs 156 million for a piece of land the paramilitary force had acquired seven years ago in former Nawabshah, now Shaheed Benazirabad, to construct their headquarters (HQ).
On Thursday, a Sindh High Court (SHC) division bench headed by the Chief Justice was irked when the nazir of the court informed the bench that only Rs 5,000 were left in the Rangers’ bank account.
The SHC had ordered seizing the Rangers’ bank account, but in the previous hearing, the paramilitary force’s counsel had requested to vacate the order so the staff’s salaries could be disbursed. However, after the order was annulled, everything but Rs 5,000 were withdrawn from the Rangers’ bank account.
In 2000, the Sindh government had acquired a piece of land measuring 156.27 acres from Syed Iftikhar Hussain, Syed Qarar Hussain and Syed Taufiq Hussain, and handed it over to the Rangers to construct their HQ.
The government wanted to pay the owners an inadequate amount of money for their land, but the owners were not satisfied with it, so they filed a reference in the district and sessions court that later dismissed their plea.
The applicants challenged the decision in front of SHC’s Hyderabad circuit bench comprising Justice Mujeebullah who ordered in favour of the applicants on May 24, 2004. Following that, the Rangers challenged the decision in the Supreme Court, which dismissed their civil review on April 20, 2007. The applicants then contacted the SHC for obtaining payment for their land, and the court ordered the Rangers and the Sindh government to make immediate payment of Rs 156.179 million to the owners on July 31, 2009. However, neither the Rangers nor the provincial government has paid the land owners thus far, and after observing the attitude of the paramilitary force and the Sindh government, the SHC had ordered seizing the Rangers’ bank account and issued a show-cause notice to them.
On Thursday, the land owners’ counsel Advocate Tehmas Rizvi informed the court that the Rangers had yet to pay the applicants. However, when the court nazir informed the bench that the Rangers’ bank account holds only Rs 5,000, the SHC ordered the Rangers and the provincial government to pay the land owners by May 31.
