WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 05: Land grab behind Karachi unrest: Supreme Court

KARACHI: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday issued its interim order, observing lack of proper land record paved way for land-grabbing and unrest in the city. A five-member bench of SC headed by Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and comprising Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmani, Justice Ameer Hani Muslim, and Justice Ather Saeed issued a 10-page interim order on Karachi unrest case.
The court observed that the absence of land record gave birth to land-grabbing activities, which led to unrest in the city. The court also showed dissatisfaction over the report of official of board of revenue on land record. The court asked the board to stop the use of simple registers for maintaining land record and underscored the need for using properly printed registers in this regard. It also asked to set up a separate cell at the board of revenue to deal with land-related matters.
Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan, Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan, informed the court about the progress on delimitation of constituencies in the city. He said on the court's directives the commission was drawing lines. He said the commission and Sindh government had held three meetings in this connection so far. He said all the meetings bore fruit. He assured the court that the commission would implement court's order on delimitation of constituencies in a short span of time.
In its interim order, the court said there was a ban on mutation, transfer and allotment of lands till its next order with changing of 30-year leased plots status into 90 years ones. The court also asked the Chief Secretary Sindh to present in three months the record of all lands whose status had been changed from 30 years to 90 years. DG Rangers, Major General Rizwan Akhtar informed the court about the co-ordination between his agency and police.
He said the Rangers had arrested criminals and handed them over to police. He also told the bench about the issues related to registration of FIR. Advocate General Sindh, Abdul Fatah Malik, assured the court that the government would re-arrest all the prisoners released illegally on paroles. He said the government had made efforts in this regard and a detailed report would soon be presented before the court.