Allotment of land to Bahria Town by Sindh govt raises many an eyebrow

KARACHI: Alleged allotment of thousands of acres of land to Bahria Town by the Sindh government has sparked anxiety among the political parties and civil society, as reported by the media.

Bahria Town, after starting its activities in Sindh, remained in a controversial arena in connection with land and estate matters.
As per reports, Sindh Rangers told the apex committee in May 2015 that the Sindh government had allotted 44,000 acres of government land on the Super Highway to Bahria Town owner Malik Riaz. In reply to such reports, Bahria Town flatly rejected the Rangers’ claim and said it had purchased the land from private parties and paid all duties and taxes.
The Bahria Town management said, “The figure of 44,000 acres is incorrect, baseless and frivolous.”
According to Bahria Town, it had purchased a total of 7,631 acres in Karachi to date.
Sindhi nationalists have staged several protests against the projects of Bahria Town across Sindh, predicting demographic changes in Sindh that would reduce native Sindhis to a minority in the near future.
“We have started province-wise protests that would continue until July 7,” said Ayaz Latif Palijo, president of Qaumi Awami Tehreek, while talking to Daily Times over the phone. He said the Sindh government had no mandate to sell the province’s land like that.
“This is a betrayal to Sindh that the provincial government was ‘snatching’ land from the natives,” he said.
Sindhi nationalist Abdul Khaliq Junejo believes that as per law, if the land is sold, the buyer should use it for the same purpose.
“But we are seeing that agricultural land is being sold [and being used] for residential purposes,” said Junejo, the president of Jeay Sindh Mahaz.
He said that the Sindh government was playing tricks. “The land is being sold at the individual level,” he added.
Karachi is already facing numerous issues like scarcity of electricity, gas and water, but this particular project is being provided all such facilities on a priority basis, he added. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf parliamentarian Khurram Sher Zaman was of the view that the allotted land was more than the figures surfacing.
“Like there were talks about Rs 230 billion being generated in terms of extortion and other illegal means, this allotment could be more than 44,000 acres,” Zaman said.

Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk

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