-Upholds order to raze Karachi’s Nasla Tower
-Says SRB most corrupt institution
From Zeeshan Mirza
KARACHI: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) on Wednesday ordered Pakistan Railways to retrieve its land illegally occupied under the name of residential societies.
This he ordered while hearing a case related to occupation over Pakistan Railways land. The land given to PR for operational purposes was being used for commercial purposes, the CJP remarked. Thousands of houses including high-rise buildings have been constructed on the Pakistan Railways land, he said to Secretary PR during Wednesday’s hearing.
A railway station was supposed to be built on the land located in the city’s Gulshan-e-Iqbal, but the land was occupied. “How this all happened, who is responsible,” asked CJP. The railways’ employees also sold out the land allotted to them, the top said. To, this the secretary railways admitted that all the construction including on Gilani Railway Station land is illegal and the destruction in the PR started after 2009.
The CJP directed the Pakistan Railways to recover the occupied land of the department. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court in a ruling in the encroachment case had said that not an inch of the railway land would be allowed to be sold or leased. The Supreme Court in order restricted the sale, transfer and allotment of any of the Pakistan Railways lands.
Meanwhile, rejecting the pleas of builder and residents of the Nasla Tower Karachi, CJP upheld Supreme Court’s order to raze the building.
Earlier this year, the court had ordered the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) to demolish Nasla Tower after the cancelation of the lease agreement. Nasla Tower is located at the intersection of Shara-e-Faisal and Shara-e-Quaideen.
Hearing the pleas of builder and residents of the Nasla Tower against razzing the building at Supreme Court Karachi Registry, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Gulzar Ahmed remarked China cutting of plots underway in Karachi.
“Usually the land is being occupied over the lease area in such projects.”
Terming the building illegal, the top judge ordered to demolish the building with immediate effect. In the last hearing, the CJP held the SBCA responsible for all illegal constructions in Karachi and remarked there was no vacant land in PECHS. Where did this land come from for Nasla Tower?
The SBCA DG had said that this land was spotted after the re-allotment f the road. To this, the top judge had remarked: “So does this mean that you would sell this land? “You will even allot Supreme Court building and CM House if you could.”
The SC after canceling the lease of the project had ordered to raze the building.
In another hearing, CJP said the Sindh Revenue Board (SRB) was the most corrupt institution. An apex court bench headed by the chief justice Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed was hearing a case pertaining to the computerization of land records in the province.
During the hearing, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, a member of the bench, asked SRB officials why haven’t land records been completely computarised as yet. “You had been asking for two, two months [to accomplish the task] but decades have gone by,” he observed.
