The City Council through passing a unanimous resolution on Tuesday expressed its great concern over the growing influence of land mafia in the city which is busy in occupying the government lands and requested the government to stop the land grabbers.
By encouraging the courageous remarks against the land grabbers made by Mir Ismail Brohi, an opposition member, it also condemned the killing threat given to the legislature and requested President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, Governor, Chief Minister and Home Minister of Sindh take serious notice of the warning.
A general session of the city council, which was held at city council hall with City Naib Nazim Nasrin Jalil in the chair, also cleared four other resolutions unanimously except the one to compensate the families of the member council who were passed away during the last few years.
In the session, Ismail Brohi, from UC-4 Gaddap Town, drove the house's attention towards his UC where he was facing a killing threat from the land grabbers who were freely occupying government lands and doing other criminal acts.
The people of the area were in tense that the sale and purchase of the lands, by converting into plots, were going on without any restriction in the area, he added.
"A man was killed recently by some unidentified men in the area while snatching Rs 0.3 million", he said adding that the issue was not particular to a party but also for all those who live in the metropolis.
He also informed the house that the land along the Northern Bypass has been occupied and allotted to different people. Jumman Darwan from the opposition benches also highlighted the same issue along Liary Express Way where the land mafia has occupied almost 300 acres of the government land.
Supporting the UC Nazim, Arshad Qureshi, a Haq Parast legislator, said that the remarks of Brohi was clearly indicating that there was the growing threats of miscreants like the land grabbers who want to disturb the peace of the city.
Masood Mehmood, another Haq Parast legislator alleged some high-ups in the government and police were involved in the occupation of government lands and harassing the residents of the area who had built their houses after collecting every penny for the last over 20 years.
Highlighting the issue, Kishwar Zaman, another member of the opposition told the house that many parks and amenity plots in North Nazimabad had been grabbed by the land mafia. Imran Ahmed, a Haq Parast legislator, also complained that a government school has been vacated by some influential personnel in Jamshed Town to occupy the land and the building.
The house also witnessed uproar, between the ruling party and opposition members, the issue of arriving the thousands of Internally displaced People (IDPs) in Karachi, as the Haq Parast members stressed to have complete registration and check on these people while some opposition members welcomed IDPs and vowed to support as much as possible.
In a resolution passed unanimously the house also expressed its sympathy with the effectees and announced to give the one day salary of members of the house to the effected people of Swat. Leader of the House, Asif Siddiqui also stressed the need the help to displaced people who are not the militants or miscreants.
In the general session the house also passing two other resolutions unanimously approved the promotions of the specialised doctors the dissolved District Municipal Corporation and creation of new posts and re-organisation of Enterprise & Investment Promotion department of City District Government Karachi.
Another resolution was also passed by the house unanimously, for approving the translation of the advertising/hoardings bye-laws into English. Later, the convenor adjourned the session to meet again on May 21, Thursday, at 4:30pm to discuss the electricity issue.