Karachi courts order park and Scheme 33 land cleared of encroachments

Two Karachi courts have ordered encroachments removed from land in the city, one covering a park and the other eight acres in Scheme 33 that the applicants value in crores of rupees.

The Sindh High Court ordered that encroachments and illegal construction on a park be removed, and sought a compliance report from the deputy commissioner East and revenue officials by 20 January, according to UrduPoint. The outlet's headline account did not name the park or identify the people occupying it.

In the second case, the Model Civil Court Malir directed a court nazir to clear the Scheme 33 land with police assistance within seven days, Express News reported. The application was filed by two brothers, Haris and Hamza, who told the court that an encroachment mafia had seized their eight acres of valuable land and that police also helped those occupying it.

The court ordered SSP East to provide a police force to the nazir and warned that contempt proceedings would be initiated if the order was not carried out. It asked for a compliance report by 6 November.

Express News reported that the court had ordered police provision for the nazir in this matter before, and that the accused had fired on a judicial officer sent to enforce its orders. The court dismissed an application to suspend its earlier order, citing non-prosecution, and said applications by Khadim Ali and others to be made parties would be taken up at the next hearing.

The two orders come from different courts, concern different pieces of land and carry different deadlines: 20 January in the High Court matter and 6 November in Malir. Both courts have asked officials to file written reports on what they did.