KPT's Board of Trustees leased out seabed of 130 acres under Section 18 of the KPT Act. 1886 to the KPT Officers Co-operative Housing Society registered in 1949. It was made in 3 stages starting from 1989 (78 acres) 1990 (27 acres) and finally in 1996 (25 acres).
It is relevant to point out that Section 18 of the KPT Act empowers KPT's Board of Trustees to execute leases for up to 25 years, and for any leases beyond 25 years. The prior sanction of the Federal Government is a prerequisite. Thus, all formalities under the KPT Act have been duly complied with.
Prior to the Housing Society allocation, the area was submerged by seawater and inaccessible without any viable road network. It was reclaimed by the Housing Society at its own initiative over the last two decades. The value at the time of allotment in 1989 was insignificant. The rate Rs 0.10 per sq. yds per annum was fixed as per analogous cases of seabed allotment by KPT to Defence Officers Housing Authority etc with the most recent example being in 2005. During the last 22 years, some members of the Housing Society have already transferred their title to third parties.
Currently, the title of the Housing Society to the said land is sub-judice and the hearings in the said Appeal filed by the Province of Sindh before the Sindh High Court have concluded and judgement has been reserved. Similarly State land has been leased to various co-operative societies by many government departments in the past as well as for public or community-based co-operative housing societies across the city. In 1949, the Karachi Co-operative Housing Society (K.C.H.S.) and P.E.C.H.S. was established through the Governor General of Pakistan licensing out State land to these societies for housing and sub-leasing. Ever since then, innumerable housing societies have mushroomed. Surprisingly, the Pakistan Audit & Accounts Services has two co-operative housing societies in Karachi, for their members. Even the Government of Pakistan allocates plots of land to Federal and Provincial cadre personnel in recognition of long service.
In the past KPT has granted or leased land to various entities such as the Karachi Boat Club in 1886, Beach Luxury hotel in 1944, and Pakistan Navy in 1970 for its Naval Officers Residential Estate- 1 as well as KDA in 1971. More recently in 2006, KPT with the approval of its Board of trustees and the Federal Government executed a lease for 20 acres of land for a period of 99 years for the building of the American Consulate, Karachi. Federal Audit has existed since colonial times after the annexation of Sindh by Sir Charles Napier in 1849. No such audit objection has ever been raised in the past since the inception of KPT in 1886.
Since the original allocation of land to KPTOCHS in 1989 regular audits have been conducted and no similar objection has arisen before except in the government Audit of 2009-10 hut so far no decision of the competent authority on the merits has been made and KPT is fully arguing and defending its position.
KPT continues to ensure that all adequate infrastructure, facilities and manpower requirements and needs are duly met. Karachi Port started with handling a few tons of cargo and has now metamorphosed into a modern Port having 33 berths/piers of which 29 are operational and the other 4 are being reconstructed and modernised. With most modern and sophisticated equipment, Karachi Port handles over 41 million tons of cargo and is well ahead into emerging into a major deep water trans-shipment hub, with 10 more berths where bigger super panamax vessels to he handled in the future. All this has been done by KPT through its own resources without putting any burden on the federal exchequer. It is also worth mentioning that unlike some other public sector organisations KPT has for a number of years been operating and developing through its own resources and is considered as one of the most successful organisations under Federal Government control.
The Board of Trustees of KPT have wide powers which covers the building of wharves, jetties and piers and also includes development activities for improvement, maintenance and good government of the Port under Section 3 of the KPT .Act. Additionally infrastructures like sheds, tramways, passenger piers and even roads and railway networks within/near the port area were constructed by KPT on its own land at its own expense for the public benefit. Thus ever since the inception of the Port, facilities related to KPT employees, labour and manpower as well as port users was a prime consideration for KPT and this explains why schools, lodging accommodation and dispensaries were set up at KPT expense for its employees etc. Therefore as an extension to the said purposes to provide residential and living accommodation to employees of the Karachi Port, the Housing Society was duly established. It is KPT's point of view that the provision of residential and living accommodation to its employees has a close and ancillary connection with port activities and cannot be ignored.
KPT since its inception was destined to be a key player in the development of Karachi and has been responsible for playing an evolutionary role in developing its infrastructure and amenities. Consequently, KPT has taken on development activities within its territorial limits as sanctioned by its Board of Trustees/the Federal Government under the KPT Act. This has directly contributed to the economic explosion of Karachi as a major world port.-PR
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