Despite tall claims by the Sindh government, particularly senior minister Zulfiqar Mirza, the authorities seem reluctant to clear forest lands in katcha areas from the clutches of influential landlords, who have encroached upon thousands of acres after last year’s floods.
Mirza has time and again announced launching a crackdown against landlords to get the encroached forest lands vacated while illegal leasing of forest lands would also be cancelled.
No pragmatic steps have, however, been taken so far against the encroachers, sources in the Sindh government told Pakistan Today, as the widespread illegal occupation of forest land, backed with political influences, has gone out of control of the authorities concerned.
Interestingly, the PPP-led Sindh government has recently allotted around 2,500 acres spread in Larkana and Dadu districts to Nawab Sardar Ahmed Chandio, son of Chandio clan’s chief Nawab Shabir Ahmed Chandio.
In Dadu district alone, at least 10,887 acres out of the 115,141 acres of forestland is under illegal occupation but the government is reluctant to take action any against them despite water experts pointing out that floods were due to encroachments on katcha areas by influential landlords and politicians.
Reportedly, influential leaders of the ruling PPP are directly involved and have also provided patronage to mafias involved in encroaching upon more than 100,000 acres of forest lands in Sindh.
Former Sindh home, forest minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza during a Sindh Assembly session had said: “Most of the forest land in Sindh has been occupied by landlords, politicians and other key figures that also patronise bandits.”
Following the worsening law and order situation, the Forest Department had prepared a list of encroachers and submitted it to the Home Department and the Sindh Assembly.
When asked to disclose the names of influential, the minister named two former Sindh chief ministers, Mumtaz Ali Bhutto and Liaquat Ali Jatoi.
“Besides them, Altaf Unar in Larkana and the Sheerazi brothers in Thatta are also involved in the menace,” he added.
Mirza had claimed that around 12 acres of land cultivated with banana and sugarcane was encroached upon by landlords and their men in Thatta and named Ghotki, Sukkur, Sanghar, Matiari and Naushero Feroz as prime forest areas that have become hideouts for criminals. Some MNAs had complained to the prime minister about him taking legal action against them, he had said.
According to Mirza, in Naushero Feroz around 2,000 acres of land have been illegally occupied by influential landlords, who have set up tube wells by installing illegal power connections. “The Forest Department started the campaign by cutting their electricity connections; show cause notices were also issued to 952 lease holders and around 116 leases were cancelled,” he explained.
However, the sources maintained that all the personalities Mirza had mentioned were political opponents of the ruling party.
According to sources, no lease has been cancelled so far neither any plan had been made to get the forests land vacated in the katcha areas. There are around 12.5 million acres of irrigation lands both in katcha and pakka areas. Out of the total land, some 2 million acres comprises katcha and 600,000 acres of katcha land is under forest, they added.
