The Supreme Court has instructed authorities to demolish all illegal structures, a mosque, mazar, and graveyard, built on the land allotted to Karachi’s Kidney Hill park.
“Deploy armed security guards at the park and ensure it is protected from all types of illegal activities,” Chief Justice Athar Minallah told the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation at a hearing at the apex court’s Karachi Registry Tuesday.
During the proceeding, Shehri’s Amber Alibhai revealed that the construction of a mosque is underway in the upper section of the 4.9-acre land of the park.
Khawaja Shams, the counsel of the mosque, argued that at the previous hearing the court had ordered the demarcation of the mosque which has been conducted. “The land was occupied from the KMC during an auction.”
But Justice Qazi Amin, cutting Shams short, said that the master plan of the park never included a mosque. “No prayer place, irrespective of the religion, is allowed to be built on encroached land.”
“You want to offer namaz, pray in the park. No one is going to stop you,” the court reiterated. “Even Islam doesn’t give you the permission to construct a mosque on qabza land.”
The chief justice, consequently, revoked the mosque’s license and instructed the management of the mosque to return the land to the corporation. An angry Justice Gulzar Ahmed said that these officers are slowly turning all the parks of the city into graveyards.
“How would you feel if we start digging graves in front of your houses?”
The court also came down on Ferozabad Assistant Commissioner Asma Batool after Shams complained that she had aided the construction of the new mosque in the park. “She created delays in the demolition of Nasla Tower too.”
When Batool tried to speak, Justice Qazi Amin stopped her. “Stay quiet. Who do you think you are? Why are officers such as you even appointed? You don’t know how to run parks.”
The case
Kidney Hill park is located near the Rangoonwala Hall in Dhoraji Colony. Around 20 acres of its land had been encroached upon in 2006.
The Kokan Cooperative Housing Society constructed bungalows and dairy farms on the amenity land. In 2018, the society management took a stay against the demolition of these illegal constructions from the Sindh High Court.
In 2019, the Supreme Court annulled the stay order and asked the authorities to remove encroachments from the park.
The KMC recovered 7.5-acre land of the park in 2019 and 2020. Over 3,000 saplings of different kinds were planted in the park, besides a jogging track. Another 11 acres of the park’s land have yet to be recovered by the KMC.
from SAMAA https://ift.tt/3sCGdM1
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