The Supreme Court on Thursday issued show-cause notices for contempt of court to Sindh Chief Secretary Raja Mohammad Abbas, Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) Master Plan director, a senior member of the Board of Revenue and director survey for not conducting land survey in spite of an order of the Sindh High Court.
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 heard the case.
The senior member of the Board of Revenue was issued the notice after the official took a sick leave and the bench directed him to appear before it on the next hearing. The bench also directed Sindh Advocate General Abdul Fateh Malik to submit a list of members of the Board of Revenue.
“Occupation of land and encroachment in the city are a hurdle in the way of peace,” Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali said.
Representative of KMC informed the court that Karachi division had five districts and 18 towns spread over an area of 3,005 square kilometres, while the residential area accounted for 1,400 square kilometres. Justice Gulzar said KMC had left no park or playground for the people and had sold out all such public places. “No action has been taken for conducting a survey regarding safety of land owned by the government, notwithstanding orders in this regard were issued back in 2005,” the court said.
Justice Jamali said the Board of Revenue had not made any progress during the last seven years.
He inquired revenue officials whether they had checked the record of properties.
The officials said all records were being computerised and the department was scrutinising them in an efficient manner.
Details of payments made to the family members of martyred lawyers were also presented before the court. During the hearing, the Sindh Election Commission said as long as census was not conducted in Sindh, the province could not be divided into certain constituencies. However, census had not been held in Sindh and the federation did not release any relevant report until now.
The EC report stated that altering boundaries prior to conducting census would be unconstitutional as population census was a constitutional requirement for changing geographical limits of a constituency. Sindh Inspector General (IG) of Police Mushtaq Shah said 254 policemen who took part in the operations of 1992 and 1996 had been killed.
He further said there had been a decline in incidents of kidnapping for ransom. The hearing of the case was adjourned until October 31.
