While the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) is leasing out hundreds of katchi abadis across Karachi, PPP’s Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Syed Qaim Ali Shah has ordered razing a leased out katchi abadi worth billions of rupees to please his close friend who is one of the most influential builders of the metropolis, Pakistan Today has learnt.
Sources said the provincial bureaucracy and senior revenue officials as well as a few of Shah’s own ministers were against the orders of razing.
However, the CM seems committed to please his close friend, the influential builder Mubeen Jumani, added the sources.
They said after the National Cement Factory located in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Town was shifted to a different location, Jumani tried encroaching the factory’s land as well as its surrounding lands.
However, they added, the people of Shanti Nagar, Dalmia, Kutchhi Para, Majeed Para, etc resisted his attempts, and Jumani later started eyeing the four-acre prime land of Nehru Gate.
The decision of razing was taken during a high-level meeting presided by the CM and attended by Jumani, Local Government (LG) Minister Agha Siraj Durrani, LG Secretary Ali Ahmed Lund, Revenue Minister Jam Mehtab Dehar, Law Minister Ayaz Soomro, and senior revenue officials, including Mohammad Khan Rind and Mohammad Ali Shah, said the sources.
They said when the CM ordered razing a katchi abadi that was, according to official records, leased out in 1995, the LG secretary, and revenue officials Rind and Shah objected the move.
However, added the sources, the CM addressed the revenue officials harshly and warned them that if his orders are not materialised, they could lose their jobs.
Sources said following the meeting, the revenue and law departments were instructed to chalk out a strategy within a week so that the leased katchi abadi could be razed and the land handed over to Jumani.
According to an official letter forwarded by Land Utilisation Secretary Ramesh H Udeshi to the East deputy commissioner on January 2, 1995, it is clear that regularisation of katchi abadis, including Nehru Gate, was ordered.
“In exercise of the powers vested U/S 10(1) of the Colonisation of Government Lands (Sindh) Act, 1912, road with statement of condition notified on 12-01-1980, the Sindh government in Land Utilisation Department with the prior approval of the Sindh chief minister has been pleased to regularise Shanti Nagar consisting of 11 paras on government land at the rate of Re 1 per square yard and on owned land of the Evacuee Trust Board at the rate of Rs 20 per square yard, subject to condition that the same shall have to be remitted to the trust board as the owners of land on usual terms and conditions,” said the letter.
The villages that were regularised include Sindh Para (20 acres), Nehru Gate (4 acres), Hiekan Para (16-21 acres), Kutchhi Para No 2 (4-17 acres), Kutchhi Para No 1 Char Minar (11-39 acres), Majeed Para (25-26 acres), Mochi Para (16-36 acres), Jhando Para (13 acres), Karim Bakhsh Para (14 acres), Dilwash Para (6 acres) and Bashir Para (26 acres).
Sources said the residents of Nehru Gate possess lease deeds of their years-old houses and razing them would be sheer injustice to the locals.
i am very pleased that jumani was not allowed to raze the land of shanti nagar because in shanti nagar people has been living for 50 years and they belong to poor class. thank you for your support and please keep it up against these kinds of crual builders.
Comments are closed.