SC slams DHA for giving away state land.

KARACHI -- The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday criticised the Pakistan Army for allotting state land in Karachi as it rejected a report submitted by the defence secretary 'unsatisfactory' and 'eyewash'.

A two-member bench, headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed and comprising Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel, resumed hearing of the case that pertains to illegal constructions in the metropolis at SC's Karachi registry.

In January, the court ordered the authorities to demolish illegal constructions that are in violation of the original master plan of the metropolitan.

Defence Secretary Ikramul Haq, Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) Director General Iftikhar Qaimkhani, Mayor Waseem Akhtar, Senior Superintendent Police Suhai Aziz Talpur, and representatives from the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, Karachi Water and Sewerage Board and other institutions were present at the hearing.

During the hearing, the bench took the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) to task for handing over state land to private entities, while directing the SBCA to ensure the court order regarding the razing of the illegal buildings.

The bench asked the justification of running marriage hall by the Pakistan Army, asking under what powers the army can hand over government land to a private entity? He asked why the military had handed over nine acres of public land to a private party.

'The DHA is a real piece of work,' Justice Ahmed remarked, adding that state land in Karachi had been handed over to private parties by the military. 'If you have no need for the land, return it to the federal government,' the judge said to the attorney general.

Rasheed A. Razvi, the lawyer for Global Marquees, told the court that there was no precedent of the army returning land to the government.

'Let us make the history today, then,' Justice Ahmed asserted.

The attorney general said that marriage hall's rental income is given to the families of martyrs.

'In Karachi, all parks and playgrounds have been taken over and named after martyrs,' the judge said. 'We seem to be right on top when it comes to martyrs. Who knows, maybe even I will become a martyr or be killed,' the judge retorted.

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