Supreme Court issued show-cause notices for contempt of court to Sindh Chief Secretary Raja Mohammad Abbas, Director Master Plan Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), a senior member board of revenue and director survey.
A five-member larger bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice Anwer Zaheer Jamali, and including Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany, Justice Amir Hani Muslim and Justice Gulzar Ahmed hearing the case Thursday
The notices to the provincial chief secretary, KMC’s director master plan and director survey were issued for not conducting land survey in spite of an order of the Sindh High Court.
The senior board of revenue member was issued the notice after the official took a sick leave. The bench has directed him to appear before it for the upcoming hearing.
The bench moreover directed Advocate-General Sindh Abdul Fateh Malik to submit to it a list of the board of revenue members.
Occupation of lands and encroachment in the city are a hurdle in the way of peace in Karachi, Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali remarked.
Representative of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) briefed the court that Karachi division has five districts and 18 towns spread to an area of 3005 square kilometres, whereas the residential area accounts for 1400 square kilometres.
At this, Justice Gulzar stated that KMC has left no park or playground for the people and have sold out all such public places. No action has been taken for conducting survey regarding safety of land owned by the government, notwithstanding orders in this regard, were issued back in 2005.
Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali said that Board of Revenue has not made any progress during the last seven years.
The bench issued contempt of court notice to Chief Secretary Board of Revenue and Senior Director of master plan, KMC, despite request made by Advocate General Sindh to prevent issuance of the notice.
The details of payments made to the family members of the martyred lawyers were also presented before the court.
During the hearing, Election Commission, Sindh held the stance that as long as census is not conducted in Sindh, then according to the constitution, the province cannot be divided into certain constituencies. However, census has not held in Sindh and the federation did not release any relevant report up till now, they noted.
Inspector General (IG) Sindh Police Mushtaq Shah said 254 policemen who took part in the operations of 1992 and 1996 had been killed.
He further said that there was a decline in the incidents of kidnapping for ransom.
Also during the hearing, the Election Commission submitted its report before the bench stating that until the census was conducted, boundaries of administrative units could not be altered.
The report stated that altering the boundaries prior to conducting census would be unconstitutional as population census was a constitutional requirement for changing geographical limits of a constituency.
The hearing of the case was adjourned till October 31.
