The tale of land dispute

Students resist orders to vacate Islamia College

KARACHI: The situation turned violent when a police force entered Islamia College carrying truncheons to vacate the building on court orders and faced stiff resistance from the students.

Tucked in the centre of the city – a goldmine for property dealers – the college complex turned into a battlefield when Karachi police fired tear gas and baton-charged students who allegedly pelted stones at law enforcers.

The court battle for Islamia College Complex has been going on for the last 53 years and since then almost a dozen cases were pending in various courts. To understand the background of the conflict we will reverse the calendar to 1948 when the Islamic Education Society under the leadership of Abdul Rehman Muhammad (AM) Qureshi laid its foundation in the Clayton Quarters.

AM Qureshi was one of Quaid-e-Azam’s companions and served as the first President of the Karachi Muslim League in 1947. He founded seventeen schools and colleges, including the Qureshi Night College which was the first of its kind to educate the working class after hours.

Over time, due to the increase in the number of students in this college, the society felt that the college should be shifted to a bigger building and decided to acquire land from the government. Court records also tell us that the society also opened up an account in the Bank of Bahawalpur to collect donations of around Rs2.5 million to build the college while Rs1 million were contributed by the government.

With this huge donation, the society decided to convert it into a legal trust by registering it in 1958 under the leadership of AM Qureshi.

In the same year, the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation leased a plot measuring 22,350 square yards to the trust for 99 years at Rs2 per square yard. With the help of donations, a ground plus-one building was built and the Islamia College was shifted from Clayton Quarters. Later, two additional floors were constructed illegally, while the terms of the lease stipulated that the trust could construct only ground plus one building and the government would have the right to cancel the lease in case of violation. The trust deed also stated that the land would only be used for the purpose mentioned in the deed.

In 1961, Chairman of IET AM Qureshi entered into a rent agreement, @ Rs 58, 000 per month, with the governing body of the Islamia College through the then principal GM Khan. Currently, the Sindh government is being held responsible for the non-payment of rent of Islamia Complex based on that agreement.

In 1971, three prominent professors of Islamia College, Prof. Anita Ghulam Ali former Sindh Education Minister, Prof. Ejaz Mehmood former member of the National Assembly, and Prof. Haider Abbas Zaidi filed a case against the trust in the then Sindh Balochistan High Court for exceeding the legal limit, but in 1972, the educational institutions were nationalised and the said case was dismissed as ineffective.

In 2001, the then IET General Secretary Afroz Shah submitted a civil petition to the SHC seeking to regain control of the college complex. As both the trustees and the government had laid claim to the property, the court decided to appoint an official assignee as the property’s owner until the case was disposed of. Later, the official assignee filed a reference in the SHC and requested that the Sindh government pay the rent and other expenses of the building to the trust. The Sindh government was directed to pay one million rupees to the trust for other expenditures and the matter regarding the payment of rent to be referred to the appropriate forum.

In 2004, an application was filed by the trustee in the Court of Rent Controller District East Karachi to acquire possession of the building. At that time, the management of all government schools and colleges (except technical colleges) had been transferred from the Sindh government to local bodies under the Devolution of Powers Act. Therefore, the trustees made the City District Government Karachi (CDGK) and Principals of Schools and Colleges parties in this petition. This hearing was pending in the local court for four years and CDGK. On the other hand, a petition filed earlier in SHC in 2001 was also under hearing.

Later, in July 2006, as a result of the amendment of the Local Government Ordinance, the colleges across Sindh were once again handed over to the Sindh government, but the party in this case remained the CDGK. Although the Department of Education Sindh wanted to be a party in the case, its plea was dismissed.

In 2012, to recover rent from both the Sindh government and the CDGK, the trustees again went to the SHC and filed two petitions. In addition, they submitted a purchase request to the rent controller, which was approved and ordered to hand over the property to the Islamia College Complex Trust. Nevertheless, the law college and the education department went on to file two separate petitions with the high court seeking a stay order over the matter.

In 2016, before the stay was granted, the provincial government approached the Supreme Court, calling for it to be considered a party to the petition filed in the SHC by the law college.

Former Deputy Director of Colleges Professor Zahid Ahmed was appointed as the focal person. On the directives of the Sindh additional advocate general, Professor Zahid Ahmed. It was attended by College Education Additional Secretary Aziz Fatima, former colleges Sindh director general Dr Nasir Ansar, and former Karachi acting regional director of colleges Zamir Ahmed Khuso. It was surprising that none of these officials was able to produce proper records at the meeting, later Zahid Ahmed was transferred which resulted in the dismissal of the government’s petition by the apex court in 2017.

Kamran Hussain, who claims to be Qureshi’s grandson, appeared before SC and has also written to various relevant authorities claiming to be the rightful owner of the Government Islamia College complex. “On behalf of the Islamic Education Trust, we have no objection if the Sindh government takes over the Government Islamia College complex in Karachi,” reads the letter.

On the other hand, Syed Mureed Ali Shah, son of former IET general secretary Afroz Shah, claims that he is the one who calls the shots regarding what is to be done with the property. Claiming that several such educational institutes have previously been handed over to their real owners, Shah was of the view that Martial Law Regulation No 118 had only nationalized the management of the educational institutions, not the properties; therefore, the owner and trustees had approached the court to reclaim their institutes.

The Islami Talba Committee has mentioned in its letter to the court that there are three significant documents which can be useful to save the student’s interest. First, the Trust Deed of 1958 doesn’t provide any clause for rent or eviction of the tenant from the institution of the complex. Secondly, the trust never gave any power of collecting rent to AM Qureshi hence Rent Agreement is illegal. Third, the Lease Agreement between the trust and KMC in 1958 of which clause 4 provided for the construction of a ground plus first-storey building whereas the Trust has unauthorizedly raised construction to the 3rd floor. On this violation, the lease can be cancelled and the Government of Sindh can acquire the complex under Land Acquisition Act.

Meanwhile, the Sindh Professors and Lecturers Association’s (SPLA) city chapter president Prof Ather Hussain Mirza and additional secretary Prof Iftikhar Azmi have said that keeping in view the great historical importance of the land where the Islamia college complex is situated; the Sindh government should acquire it in the larger interest of the public and declare it as a heritage.