SC cancels allotment of Gutter Baghicha land to KMC employees

ISLAMABAD: A Supreme Court bench on Tuesday cancelled allotment of 200 acres land of Karachi’s Gutter Baghicha to KMC employees society, ARY News reported.

The court in its ruling said that the KMC could not allot the land to its own employees.

According to the law, this land could likely have been allotted for educational, religious or other amenity purposes.

“The KMC employees formed a society for allotment of the land and got the Gutter Baghicha land allotted in the name of this society,” the bench observed.

Earlier, counsel of the KMC officers society argued that the KMC have been authorized to allot land for a housing society. “In this society retired employees and widows are residing,” the lawyer said. Providing shelter to widows is also amenity, he said.

In a previous hearing at Supreme Court’s Karachi Registry, chairman society informed the court that 200 acres of Gutter Baghicha land was allotted to it under the Sindh Local Councils Rules.

“How can the municipal land being allotted,” the chief justice said.

It is to be mentioned here that Gutter Baghicha was one of the most beautiful and green places in Karachi. An oasis of open green forest spread over one thousand acres, which was slowly eaten up by encroachment.