SHC seeks complete record of 50-year-old nationalised school

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has directed the education secretary to submit the complete record and status of a 50-year-old government school situated in the Federal B Area that was nationalised in the 1970s.

The direction came on a petition of Tariq Rahim, who sought the possession of the school property claiming that it had still not been handed over to him despite its denationalisation. The petitioner said the property situated in Block-13 of the Federal B Area had been allotted to his late father Major IA Rahim by the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) in 1962, adding that the property had been gifted to him and duly mutated in the KDA records in 1982.

He said the property had been nationalised under the nationalisation policy during the 1970s’ martial law under the Privately Managed Schools and Colleges (Taking Over) Regulation 1972, adding that since then the property had been in the possession of the education department, with the school running under the name of the Metropolitan Government Girls School.

He also said the school had been closed through a notification on April 2, 2018, adding that the property had not been handed over to him by the education department despite the fact that in similar circumstances, the buildings of the nationalised private schools had been returned to their owners during Ziaul Haq’s martial law regime in 1983.

The petitioner’s counsel said the education department had been conveyed the cabinet’s August 21, 2001 decision about handing over nationalised properties to their real owners, but such directives had not been complied with in his client’s case. He said the petitioner’s claim on the property had not been challenged or disputed by the education department in its comments.

He requested the court to direct the education department to hand over the school property to the petitioner as the real owner and pay its rent from December 30, 2000 to date at the prevalent market rate.

An SHC division bench headed by Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi directed the education secretary to appear before the court along with the relevant record and status of the school by February 9.

‘Illegal’ building

The SHC also issued notices to the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA), the Maniya Cooperative Housing Society and others on a petition against the allegedly unauthorised construction of a multi-storey building on Khalid Bin Waleed Road in the PECHS neighbourhood.

Petitioner M Jawed said the multi-storey building project named Danish Gravity Tower has been constructed in the Maniya Cooperative Housing Society on Khalid Bin Waleed Road. He said that a small portion of the property has been constructed by encroaching upon an area of 210 square yards of the road as well as the area reserved for a public park in violation of the approved building plan.

The court, after the preliminary hearing of the petition, subject to the maintainability of the petition, issued notices to the SBCA and others, ordering them to file their comments on the next date of hearing.

Robber convicted

A West additional district and sessions court on Saturday sentenced a robber to seven years in prison in a case pertaining to robbery and mobile phone snatching. Amir Ahmed was arrested by the police for committing robbery along with absconding co-accused Mohammad Rasoo at a pharmacy store in Orangi Town on June 3, 2020.

According to the prosecution, the accused came at the pharmacy store of the complainant, Niazuddin, and snatched cash and mobile phone from his parental nephew Mairajuddin at gunpoint.

Deputy district prosecutor Mohammad Arif Satai submitted that the prosecution had proved its case against Ahmed who had also been identified by the complainant in the identification parade. After hearing the arguments of the counsels and perusal of evidence, the court observed that the prosecution had proved its case against the accused who had committed robbery at the pharmacy store of the complainant. The court sentenced Ahmed to seven years in prison and directed him to pay a fine amounting to Rs50,000 to the complainant and his nephew.