70,000 acres forest land in Sindh illegally allotted on lease, govt tells SC

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court was informed on Wednesday that 70,000 acres of forest land in Sindh was allotted illegally.

Additional Advocate General of Sindh apprised the three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar about the aforementioned illegal allotment of land.

During the hearing, the counsel representing Sindh government also relayed to the court that 145,000 acres of forest land has been illegally grabbed in the province.

Upon hearing this, Justice Nisar remarked that, “why hasn’t the allotment been cancelled if the provincial government itself is terming the allotment of 70,000 acres of land as illegal?”

In response, the Sindh government counsel said the matter has been sent to the cabinet for cancellation.

“The cancellation order needs only two minutes,” the top judge retorted. “Tell us, if you people don’t want to work.”

The CJP also questioned the absence of the Forest Minister and the Chief Secretary of Sindh.

Further on in the hearing, Justice Ijazul Ahsan said, if 145,000 acres of land was under illegal occupation then the government should take steps to recover it from land grabbers.

“The court had issued orders to recover the illegally occupied land two months ago,” he said.

Before the hearing concluded, the bench noted that no effort was made by the provincial government to retrieve the land and directed Sindh government and other parties in the case to submit their reply by Jan 7.