Court Issues Notices in Case Against Proposed Allotment of 6,000 Acres to DHA in Hawkes bay

KARACHI – The Sindh government’s plan to allot 6000 acres to the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) prompted a petition in the Sindh High Court.

A report shared by a local publication claimed that the apex court of the country’s southeastern region issued notices to the chief secretary, the administrator of the Defence Housing Authority (DHA), and other relevant parties in response to a petition challenging the provincial government’s plan to allocate 6,000 acres of land to DHA.

It mentioned that the division bench comprising Justice Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan and Justice Rashida Asad reviewed the petition granted the urgency application and issued notices on the petition.

The petitioner stated that land should be allocated to low-income residents of the port city at subsidized rates. Advocate Ashfaque Ali Panhwar moved, arguing that DHA requested the Sindh chief minister in August last year for the allotment of 5,000 to 6,000 acres near Hawkesbay for expansion purposes.

He claimed that the Sindh government was considering and processing this request, and DHA Karachi had provided a site plan for the proposed 6,000 acres in Hawkesbay.

The petitioner listed the chief minister, chief secretary, land revenue utilization secretary, DHA administrator, senior member Board of Revenue, and deputy commissioner Keamari, among others, as respondents.

He alleged that there was no mention of payment to the Sindh government for the 6,000 acres in the correspondence between the respondents.

The petitioner further highlighted that the provincial government previously allotted land to DHA and other entities in Karachi and Hyderabad instead of providing for the province’s underprivileged people.

He also pointed out that the provincial government had earlier allotted 11,640 acres to DHA for the DHA-City project without any government tax. The petitioner asserted that the land in question should be allotted to low-income residents of Sindh, especially those in Karachi, at subsidized rates.