Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday ordered to hand over the money, provided by Bahria Town to an 11- member Commission, which is being formed to look after its disbursement on development projects of Sindh (half for Karachi and the remaining half for the entire Sindh). The money is being deposited by Bahria Town as a fine for illegally purchasing land from the provincial Sindh government in instalments.
According to the latest verdict on a petition for the implementation of an earlier verdict by the apex court the proposed Commission would be headed by a Chairman nominated by the Chief Justice of Pakistan and comprised of five voting members who are permanent residents of Sindh and have no political affiliations and six non-voting members. Who will decide about political affiliation is not specifically mentioned.
The Sindh governor and the chief minister would nominate one person each as a voting member, the attorney general for Pakistan and the attorney general for Sindh will also be included in the body.
Non-voting members will be the Sindh Chief Secretary, Finance Secretary, a senior member of the provincial Board of Revenue, senior officers assigned to Sindh in the office of the Auditor General of Pakistan, the Accountant General of Pakistan and Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan.
The SC implementation bench had on March 21 last year accepted Bahria Town’s offer to pay PKR 460 billion on account of the purchase of the land measuring 16,896 acres controlled by the Malir Development Authority (MDA), but with certain terms and conditions.
The SC accepted the offer on May 4, 2018 judgement, which had held the grant of land to the MDA by the Sindh government, its exchange with the land of private developer Bahria Town and anything done under the provisions of the Colonisation of Government Land Act 1912 by the provincial government illegal and of no legal existence. The land was granted for launching an incremental housing scheme, but the MDA exchanged it with Bahria Town to launch a scheme of its own, the SC verdict had regretted.
A mixed reaction is coming from Sindh as the PPP supporters were happy that money is received for development projects in Sindh, however, the legal experts and rights activists believe this was tantamount to legalising Bahria Town’s illegal actions.
Malik Riaz of Bahria Town is still busy grabbing land from villages located around its huge real estate in Malir and Jamshoro districts and Sindh police is providing their all-out assistance to him and bulldozing the Goths.
The provincial Sindh Government is said to be a supporter of Bahria Town Karachi as PPP CO-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari is allegedly a partner of Malik Riaz in this project. The twin islands which the federal government is planning to offer for development are also said to be an extension of Bahria Town in Karachi.
Karachi Indigenous Rights Alliance has rejected today’s verdict and demanded the Supreme Court of Pakistan to refund back the money to Bahria Town and order the real estate tycoon to hand over the land to its old owners (villagers).
So far 44 villages have been destroyed by Bahria Town, which was early included in a topographic sheet of Karachi, prepared by Survey General of Pakistan 1965-69.
Gul Hassan Kalmati a member of the Alliance told this scribe that earlier the members of the alliance had met and they had a clear opinion on ownership of the land. They refused to hand over the land to the builder.
The Alliance members were of the opinion that this land was allotted illegally so should be taken back. “Some of our members were of the opinion that in case the money is eventually paid, this should entirely be spent on the development of Malir district.”
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