KARACHI: Encroachment removal operation along the Gujjar nullah continued on Tuesday for the second consecutive day as approximately 5.3 km area was evacuated.
According to sources, the authorities started today’s encroachment drive from Shafiq Morr which led to protests by the residents of the area including, women and children. The protestors have blocked the road which affected the traffic flow.
Officials said that a total of 105 illegal soft encroachments not involving residential units that were put up on the drain were removed by the district administration. Police escorted them to ensure a smooth run of the operation.
The authorities claim to have cleared a more than 24-km stretch of the Gujjar Nala during the past few months after the KMC’s anti-encroachment wing launched the drive under directives from chief minister Syed Murad Ali Shah.
Earlier, an operation was launched against encroachments on both sides of Gujjar Nala. Talking to the media, Bashir Siddiqui, senior director of, anti-encroachment department, said that initially a 30-foot road was being constructed on both sides of the drain.
The operation against illegal structures on the Gujjar Nala had launched over a year ago that initially prompted a strong reaction from the residents and those occupying land for commercial use.
Earlier, the Sindh High Court (SHC) had rejected a plea by Gulberg Town residents to halt the ongoing anti-encroachment operation along Karachi’s Gujjar Nullah.
A two-judge bench of the high court directed the petitioner to satisfy it on the maintainability of his petition and rejected his plea to grant a stay order against the operation until this case is decided. The petitioner stated before the bench that he had been residing in Gulberg Town’s Tayyababad area for the past 50 years.
The petitioner added that he acquired the plot on which his house is built from the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) on a lease as per the laws. He pleaded with the high court to restrain the KMC from knocking down leased houses however, the court rejected.
