SC tells Sindh govt, city mayor to make decision for rehabilitation

The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Sindh government and the Karachi mayor to make an appropriate decision with regard to the rehabilitation of the people displaced by an anti-encroachment operation in the surroundings of the Gujjar and Orangi storm water drains.

Hearing the applications seeking the implementation of the rehabilitation case, a three-member SC bench headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar asked the provincial law officer about the payment of the outstanding rent to the affected people as well as their rehabilitation.

The displaced persons’ counsel Faisal Siddiqui said his clients have agreed to both the rehabilitation proposals of the provincial government, adding that the government should first decide which option is more suitable for resolving the issue and implementing the court’s orders.

The chief secretary told the bench that the government would place the matter before the cabinet. Justice Mazhar said the SC’s order is binding on the provincial government and cannot be superseded by the cabinet.

The court said that the settlement of the affected people is the responsibility of the government, and the land, if allocated for them, should be free of all sorts of encroachments.

Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi said that half of the city has been allotted to Goths, and that instead of the city, the land of Goths has flourished.

The court said that the affected people had been asked to either accept compensation for land and house construction or an 80-square-yard land with payment for construction.

The counsel for the displaced persons said that both options can be adopted, but the government should first be allowed to decide which option is more suitable for finalising rehabilitation.

The CS and the mayor sought time to make an appropriate decision and a road map for finalising the matter. The court directed the provincial government and the city mayor to submit a report on their decision to rehabilitate the affected people within 15 days.

Regarding the payment of the outstanding rent to the displaced people, the court was informed that 461 of the 6,471 affected people could not get cheques due to the blocking of their identity cards, their death or their moving out of the city.

The court directed the focal person dealing with the distribution of cheques to get public notices published in local newspapers for providing information to the affected people who are yet to collect their cheques.

The SC bench also directed the city commissioner’s office to provide the list of the 461 displaced people to their counsel so that their whereabouts can be verified.

The court had earlier asked the affected people to consider the two proposals of the provincial government with regard to the plan for their rehabilitation.

The provincial government had offered the 6,932 displaced people to collect the amount for the purchase of land and for the cost of construction as per market value of the land from where they were dispossessed.

As an alternative, the government had offered to allocate them an 80-square-yard plot in the jurisdiction of the Malir Development Authority and to pay them the cost of construction in accordance with the standards set out by the engineering council.

A non-governmental organisation and the affected people had moved the court against the failure of the provincial government to comply with the SC’s order to suitably compensate and rehabilitate the people whose houses had been razed during an operation to remove encroachments around the Gujjar and Orangi nullahs.

They had filed a contempt-of-court application against former chief minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, saying that the SC had clearly directed the provincial government to rehabilitate and compensate the affected people within two years.

Their counsel said Shah had undertaken before the top court that a scheme titled ‘Resettlement of Affectees of Gujjar, Mehmoodabad and Orangi Nullah’ would be executed by the government at an estimated cost of Rs10 billion, and that the project would be completed in all respects within two years.