KARACHI: The Sindh High Court, while disposing of a six-year-old petition, directed the provincial government on Monday to remove encroachments from a plot allocated for a park in Taiser Town Scheme 45.

Mian Trust, a charitable body that runs a technical education school in the neighbourhood, had filed a petition in 2005. The trust had pointed out in the petition that the amenity plot, adjacent to the school, had been encroached. It had maintained that the construction activity there had caused disturbance to the students of the school.

During the hearing of the petition, Sindh Building Control Authority and Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, in their replies, admitted that the plot was earmarked for a park. Lyari Expressway Resettlement Project, however, submitted that the plot was reserved for the park but later its status was changed to residential to provide accommodation to those affected by the construction of the Lyari Expressway.

A two-judge bench of SHC headed by Justice Irfan Saadat Khan noted that there was no provision in Karachi Building and Town Planning Regulations 2002 that allowed change of status of an amenity plot.

The bench referred to a report of an inspection conducted on the court’s direction and said that the visuals showed some construction on the park’s land.

The bench directed the Sindh government to remove the encroachments, develop a park for the people of the area, and submit a report in one month.