The Karachi Development Authority (KDA) was ordered by the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday to clear encroachments from a North Karachi industrial site and submit a compliance report within six weeks.
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The Authority failed to handover possession
A petition regarding encroachments on industrial land in the North Karachi neighborhood led to the direction. The petitioner claimed that after paying all fees, the authority was refusing to grant possession of a 2,278-square-yard industrial property to its company since the plot in question was already occupied.
In an earlier hearing, the high court noted that the authority had not only failed to carry out and discharge its duties by guarding against and safeguarding the plot from unauthorized occupation, but also by failing to remove the encroachments.
The Authority offered an alternate plot in Scheme 41
The SHC noted that the authority would need to either give the petitioner another alternate property in the same area or pay compensation based on the current market value. Under a compliance report, the director of land management stated that the authority was working to remove encroachments from the subject land and that alternative plots had also been made available to the petitioner in Scheme 41 Surjani Town.
The petitioner would prefer to take possession of the subject plot when the encroachments are removed, but the petitioner’s attorney stated that he needed time to acquire the petitioner’s guidance on the offer of substitute land.
The Authority is ordered by SHC
After reading the report, a division bench of the SHC led by Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi ordered the authority to remove the encroachments from the subject land and submit a compliance report by February 28. The high court noted that the petitioner could, in the meanwhile, look into the prospect of acquiring alternative land.
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After its inception, the authority introduced several schemes in Karachi, the foremost being KDA Scheme 1, KDA officers housing society, KDA overseas bungalows, KDA Scheme 1 extension, KDA market Gulshan e Iqbal and KDA officers society, etc.