KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday directed the provincial government to inform within a month about how a man whose land was acquired 15 years ago would be paid the amount awarded to him for his land acquired under the Land Acquisition Act.
The directions were issued by a two-judge bench headed by Justice Zafar Ahmed Rajput during the hearing of contempt of court application filed against Chief Secretary Sindh, Commissioner Karachi and Director General Karachi Development Authority for not complying with an order of the SHC passed in 2019.
Applicant Muhammad Anis was given an award of Rs90,000 per square yard plus 30 percent statutory allowance and additional allowance for acquiring his 1,815 square yard land for construction of Hinopak Flyover in 2004.
Against non-payment of award amount the petitioner had approached the Sindh High Court and on September 6, 2019, the bench headed by Justice Hassan Azhar Rizvi had directed the acquiring authority to take immediate steps to arrange the requisite funds to be deposited with the Land Acquisition Collector within a period of one month positively from the date of order hereof.
Justice Rizvi had observed that in case the funds were not released within the stipulated time, the petitioner would be at liberty to move the court afresh for further action in accordance with the law.
When the application for the contempt of court was taken up for hearing Advocate General Sindh, Sulman Talibuddin, submitted that Hinopak Flyover was constructed under the Tameer-e-Karachi Programme of the federal government and funding for it was to be provided by the federal government institutions.
The funding for Hinopak Flyover was to be provided by Karachi Port Trust, Pakistan State Oil and State Bank of Pakistan, the AG Sindh added.
To a query of the bench as to who had acquired the land and who was to pay for land acquisition, the counsel for the applicant replied that other parties whose land was acquired were paid by the Sindh government.
The counsel further apprised the court the land was acquired on behalf of Sindh Chief Secretary. The Chief Secretary Sindh also filed an application submitting that had great respect for all courts of law and could not even think of disobeying them.
Citing and observation of Supreme Court of Pakistan in a related matter the Chief Secretary submitted that in case of a grievance the apex court had directed the applicant to approach Land Acquisition Collector to whom the Sindh High Court had issued direction for payment of compensation.
The Chief Secretary, therefore, pleaded the court for withdrawal of show-cause notice for contempt of court issued to him. The AG Sindh also sought time for determining as to who was (is) to pay award amount to the applicant.
