KARACHI: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Karachi has approached the Sindh High Court (SHC) to challenge the alleged commercialization of public parks by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) under the guise of public-private partnerships.
The constitutional petition, submitted on Monday, was filed by Saifuddin Advocate, the opposition leader in the city council, along with several JI-affiliated town chairmen. The petition names the KMC and Karachi’s mayor as respondents, accusing them of unlawfully handing over public amenity spaces to private parties.
Speaking to media outside the SHC, Saifuddin Advocate said that the city’s already limited public spaces were shrinking further due to such actions. “The mayor and KMC are following in the footsteps of the MQM, which introduced the concept of ‘china cutting’; a term for illegally converting amenity plots, including parks, into commercial or residential spaces,” he alleged.
Saifuddin Advocate added that the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP), now in control of the city government, was continuing the same exploitative approach. “This regime is trying to make money by handing over parks to private companies, violating the spirit of public amenities,” he said.
Citing the Constitution and existing court rulings, he emphasized that amenity plots, including parks, are not to be used for commercial purposes under any circumstances.
Despite this, he noted, the PPP-led administration had recently leased a nursing hostel belonging to the Karachi Institute of Heart Diseases (KIHD) to a private party for just 250 thousand rupees per month, without even tabling the deal before the city council.
He stressed that such decisions are not only unlawful but also deprive citizens of essential public spaces. Saifuddin Advocate vowed that the JI would continue to resist these measures, both in the council and the courts, to protect the rights of Karachi residents.
The petition reflects growing political friction over the management of the city’s public assets, particularly as accusations mount against the current municipal leadership for lacking transparency and undermining community welfare.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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