Govt forms committee to find amicable solution

Karachi

The Sindh government has set up a committee to sort out the dispute over the ownership of land allotted to the Port Qasim Authority (PQA) 30 years ago.

On Saturday, Sindh Chief Secretary Saleem Hotiana issued a notification stating the five-member committee would decide the dispute regarding the 13,635 acres land allotted by the government to the PQA in 1974.

The five-member body would be led by Karachi Commissioner Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui and include the PQA chairman and representatives of the law, land utilisation and revenue departments as members. The committee’s first priority would be to sort out the demarcation of land allotted and determine the actual area in possession of PQA. It would also sort out the dispute regarding the possession of 1,315 acres of land in Thatta district allotted to the PQA in 2006.

Under the agreement signed in 1973, the PQA had been allotted around 13,000 acres for operating the port and its industrialisation. The authority had, however, been barred from utilising the land for any other purposes. In case of unpaid dues, not using the land within the specific period or using it for unauthorised purposes, the allotment was to be cancelled.

In a recent meeting, the chief minister had taken notice of the “occupation” by the PQA and without naming any organisations expressed displeasure over the “illegal” attempts to reclaim land from the Arabian Sea for commercial purposes. All vacant lands on the province’s seafront and islands up to 12 nautical miles from the coast were Sindh government’s property and no other authority had the right to claim its ownership, he said. As the chief executive of the province, he had laid claim to all the land in Sindh and said he would not allow any individual or organisation to illegally take over even an inch of the land.

Two islands, Bundal and Buddo, near the city’s shoreline have also been in the limelight recently. It has been reported the islands are to be leased out to real estate developers.