The Sindh High Court has issued notices to the chief secretary, the administrator of the Defence Housing Authority (DHA), and others in response to a petition challenging the provincial government’s plan to allocate 6,000 acres of land to DHA.
A division bench comprising Justice Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan and Justice Rashida Asad considered the petition along with an application seeking an urgent hearing. After a preliminary hearing, the bench granted the urgent application and issued notices regarding the main petition.
The court order stated, “Exemption granted subject to all just exceptions. Notice to the respondents as well as AAG for a date to be fixed by the office after summer vacations.”
The petitioner argues that the land should be allocated to low-income residents of Karachi at subsidized rates, and the Sindh High Court will hear the case after the summer vacations.
Advocate Ashfaque Ali Panhwar submitted the petition to the SHC, stating that the DHA had applied to the Sindh chief minister in August last year for the allotment of 5,000 to 6,000 acres of land near Hawkesbay for expansion purposes. He contended that the Sindh government was considering and processing this request, and the DHA Karachi had already provided a site plan for the proposed land.
The petitioner listed the chief minister, chief secretary, land revenue utilization secretary, DHA administrator, senior member of the Board of Revenue, deputy commissioner of Keamari, and others as respondents. He alleged that there was no mention of payment to the Sindh government for the 6,000 acres of land in the correspondence between the respondents.
He also noted that the provincial government had previously allotted land to the DHA and others in Karachi and Hyderabad instead of accommodating the underprivileged population of the province. Specifically, the petitioner highlighted that the provincial government had earlier allocated 11,640 acres to the DHA for its DHA-City project without any government tax.
The petitioner argued that the land in question should be allotted to low-income residents of Sindh, particularly those in Karachi, at subsidized rates. He requested the SHC to summon the respondents in person to resolve the case and called for the records from the respondents regarding land allotted by the Sindh government to DHA and other individuals or projects over the past 15 years.
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