PTI leaders demand judicial commission to investigate illegal land occupation

Terming the demolition of the farmhouse of the brother of Sindh Assembly opposition leader Haleem Adil Sheikh and registration of cases against him as political revenge of the Sindh government and violation of the court stay orders, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Sindh leaders on Sunday demanded a judicial commission to conduct investigations into land issues.

Sheikh, who is also the PTI central vice-president, addressed a press conference, in which he said his hands were clean and leaders of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party were the biggest land grabbers in Sindh.

He was accompanied by MNA Jay Pirkash Ukrani, PTI Karachi President Khurrum Sher Zaman, MPAs Dr Imran Shah, Dua Bhutto, Karim Bux Gabol, PS-88 by-poll candidate Jansher Junejo and others.

Sheikh alleged that the PPP-led Sindh government was carrying out political vendetta against the PTI leaders. “We have legal documents for every inch of our lands. These leased lands were purchased by my cousin from Muni Begum,” he claimed. “The deputy commissioner Malir had already made a report about these lands and after a committee was formed in 2011, the matter was approved by the Board of Revenue.”

The PTI leader alleged that Syed Owais Muzaffar Tapi, a close aide to PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, had illegally occupied thousands of acres of lands in Karachi. “Now, provincial minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah is involved in illegal occupation of land on fake challans,” he added.

Sheikh claimed that the land owned by his relatives were leased and not occupied. He said the demolition of the farmhouse on Saturday was an act of revenge against him because the PTI had staged a protest rally from Hyderabad to Karachi against sugar mills and the Omni Group.

“Since 2018, the PPP government tried its best to implicate me in false cases but it got no proof against me,” he said. He maintained that the anti-corruption department had sent a report to the Sindh chief secretary to take action against him, but the chief secretary wrote that there was no land-grabbing in his case.

Responding to the PPP’s criticism that the PTI had welcomed anti-encroachment operation in Punjab but was issuing statements against a similar operation in Sindh, the PTI leader said the cases of removal of encroachments in Punjab was different from the action against his land as he had all the documents along with a stay order from court.

Sheikh went on to allege that government officials had attacked the farmhouse of his relatives on Saturday at the behest of the chief minister. “The chief minister has lost senses after I became the opposition leader.”

He added that hooligans of the PPP had attacked the farmhouse, stole precious goods and even snatched golden ornaments from women there. According to Sheikh, the chief minister was himself involved in corruption in the Roshan Sindh project, wheat corruption scandal, Nooriabad power scandal and other scandals.