The provincial government has started regularisation of some 800 goths in Karachi in violation of land regularisation's rules. Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah had issued a notification, No EDO/REV/K/RB-1/3279/2008, on December 18, 2008 in violation of land regularisation rules, for regularisation of four goths in the city under Sindh Goth Abad Scheme, official sources at Sindh Katchi Abadi Authority (SKAA) told Business Recorder on Monday.
The sources said through the notification EDO of the concerned department and officials of revenue department were asked to grant lease rights for 99-years to the occupant of Sachal Goth, Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Goth, Ayub Goth and Marrora Goth, which have been established on government lands, pointing out that regularisation of goths established on government's land is illegal.
They said that among these four goths, Sachal Goth Sector-23 falls under the jurisdiction of Karachi Development Authority (KDA), similarly Ayub Goth Sector-22 also falls under the jurisdiction of KDA and these lands could not be regularised until KDA accept to regularise these lands. They said that other two goths, Marrora Goth Sector-28 and Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Goth fell under the jurisdiction of Evacuee Trust. "The residents of both the goths migrated to India and could not come back to Pakistan due to some unknown reasons", they said.
They said that the Sindh government is trying to repeat the history, as in the period of former Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in collaboration with the business community keeping in view the financial crisis of the past started, investment to buy lands by regularising government lands.
They said that the business communities like Okhai Memon Jamat (OMJ) started buying lands on large scale to invest their money after the stock exchange's crisis. After the publication of news that the government is going to regularise 800 goths of city, the businessmen are trying now to create various goths in the metropolis to save their investment for a long time, they said.
They said that there are only 403 sanctioned goths in the city, which are also listed with various government departments and concerned departments also recognised their establishment while rest 397 unsanctioned goths have no existence and government is trying to create ghost goths in the metropolis.
They said that the plan to create ghost goths in the city was prepared during the period of previous provincial government, when the then Chief Minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim announced on June 02, 2006 to regularise 800 goths including 397 unsanctioned goths of Karachi.
They alleged that during this period, through a conspiracy the record of revenue department was set on fire and after the formation of present government it limited the power of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for, what they said, to occupy these lands easily.
They said that few days ago the land grabbers in collaboration with some MPAs and MNAs tried to occupy the land situated opposite the shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi. They deployed officials of law enforcement agencies at the site to avoid any type of disturbance from the officials of City District Government Karachi (CDGK), they said.
They added similarly businessmen belonging to Okhai Memon Jamaat (OMJ) tried to occupy 120 acres of Hassan Brohi Goth near Khuda Ke Basti illegally and built 800 house in the area to force the authorities concerned to give ownership rights to the residents.