KDA given hours to demarcate encroached land

The Sindh High Court (SHC) directed the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) to immediately demarcate encroached land, allotted to the petitioners in 1976.

The petitioners had filed a plea seeking removal of illegal encroachment and handing over possession of the residential plots back to them. They submitted that they had purchased the plots against a payment of Rs 64,000 each through an auction conducted by the authorities back in 1976, but were unable to build their houses since the lands were encroached upon by the land mafia.

The petitioner alleged that while the court had clearly ordered KMC’s director land to get the encroachments removed, the order had not yet been complied with in letter and spirit. In a joint petition, the petitioners had pleaded to the court to order the authorities to retrieve their land from the mafia and hand over possession to them.

On the court’s query regarding the petitioners still seeking possession of the land they owned, director KDA maintained the plots had been retrieved and that the petitioners were given the possession, but they were not carrying out any constructions.

The petitioners submitted that they could not raise constructions over the land which was yet to be demarcated. They added that the land grabbers were using the plots as a landfill site.

The petitioner alleged that the officials of the KMC’s land department as well as the KDA were hand in glove with the land mafia; therefore, the petitioners were not being handed over the possession of their plots.

The court observed that the director land was a public servant who should not treat citizens like underlings. He further observed that the petitioners had duly purchased the land in question, and not acquired free of cost.