The Sindh High Court issued notice to secretary communication, National Highway Authority’s (NHA) chairman, general manager (Revenue), project director M9 project, Sindh chief secretary, and others on a petition against construction of a 139-km-long six-lane motorway between Karachi and Hyderabad.
A division bench, headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, was hearing a petition against construction of the motorway project.
The petition was filed by a large section of stakeholders, owners of CNG and petrol stations, dairy farmers, and individuals engaged in different businesses along the Superhighway. They said they were aggrieved at the conversion of the existing four-lane Super Highway into a six-lane motorway which would endanger their livelihood.
The counsel for the petitioners submitted that the federal authorities had intimated the petitioners about the construction of the motorway project, adding in 2009 when the government announced the conversion of the existing superhighway into the motorway, since then the petitioners have been consistently showing their strong reservations over the project but the authorities have turned a deaf ear to their concerns.
He said the petitioners approached the authorities to provide them the details of the approved plan of the motorway project so that they could acquaint themselves with what probable changes were being contemplated to current Superhighway and how the new project would affect their properties, business and trade activities, agricultures but to no avail.
The counsel apprehended that due to fencing on either side of the motorway petitioners and thousands of other people’s access to their business, homes, villages and lands, workplaces, graveyards, mosques would be denied which is violation of law and Article 15 of the Constitution.
They said fencing on the sides of the motorway would cause colossal losses to businessmen and trades and also affect livelihood of the millions of people whose livelihood directly and indirectly was dependent on the existing fence-free superhighway. The superhighway provided people with unhindered access to thousands of commercial and business outlets, including CNG and petrol stations, which were situated on both sides of the highway.
Therefore, the petitioners requested the court to declare the project as impractical and unfeasible as fencing on the sides of motorway would deprive the petitioners to have a free access to their home, workplaces, business and other economic and trade activities. The court was requested to issues directives for the authorities to address the concerns of petitioners.
