SHC asks KMC, commissioner to resolve dispute over cottage industry land

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday directed commissioner Karachi and Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) to sort out the dispute arising from the recent demarcation of land in Orangi Township and Baldia Cottage Industrial Zone.

The counsel for KMC, Hassan Abidi, informed a two-member bench comprising Justice Zafar Ahmed Rajput and Justice Faisal Kamal Alam that the corporation had allotted 348 acres land to the cottage industry. But now, stated the counsel, the Board of Revenue was saying that the KMC had only 46 acres land.

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The KMC counsel stated that the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) had allotted the cottage industry land to the KMC. When the land was allotted to the cottage industry nobody raised any objection to it, he said.

When the bench sought Advocate General (AG) Sindh Salman Talib Deen’s view on the situation, he apprised that Sindh industries department had completed the development of an industrial zone over 3,000 acres that would also had provision plots for small and cottage industries.

The AG Sindh stated that summary for allotment of land had been sent to Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah.

However, the bench observed that the dispute over cottage industry land in Orangi would still need to be sorted out.

The bench directed the KMC and commissioner to file a progress report regarding resolving of the dispute over cottage industry to court on January 15, 2022.

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The same bench had earlier ordered demarcation of the entire land of the Orangi Township and Baldia Town Cottage Industrial Zone under supervision of the municipal commissioner and the members of the relevant coordination committee.

The order was passed on a petition of Mohammad Ferozuddin Hilaly against illegal encroachment of the land meant for the Orangi Township and Baldia Cottage industry.