ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court ordered the Sindh government to expropriate land in the province, cancel all illegal allotments of forest land and take possession of it.
The decision written by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed said that ‘no negligence will be tolerated in this regard and the Chief Conservator should ensure the implementation of court orders’.
A 3-member bench headed by Chief Justice Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah heard the case.
A 3-member bench headed by Chief Justice Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah heard the case, in which they requested the Sindh government to implement housing schemes, townships, land distribution, land reforms on the forests of the province. and prevent the introduction of other schemes and policies that lead to deforestation or land grabbing.
The Supreme Court ordered the Chief Conservator of Forests Ijaz Nizamani to seek the assistance of the Chief Secretary Sindh to implement the court orders.
The court has sought a comprehensive report from the Chief Conservator on the next hearing along with a GIS (Geographical Information System) image report identifying all the forest land in the province.
In the last hearing, Sindh’s Chief Conservator of Forests told the Supreme Court that out of the 2.8 million acres of forest land in the province, 50,000 acres are occupied.
He said that ‘efforts are being made by the Forest Department to get back the land, at the same time he blamed the Sindh Revenue Department and said that a large part of the land was allotted illegally.
In its order, the Supreme Court said that forest department officials are also involved in encroachment and illegal allotment of forest land, mostly by those in power.
In his petition, Qazi Athar challenged the summary of changing the status of forests to ‘revenue land’ prepared by the Chief Minister of Sindh in 2010 and the change in the status of forests for the Land Utilization Department of the Board of Revenue in 2012. He also questioned the departmental steps taken to cancel the notification.
The petitioner requested the court to declare all 28 lakh, 58 thousand 748 acres of forest land in Sindh as national assets and protected areas.
Along with this, they also requested that all the encroaching mafias from the forest land should be evicted and the allotment or lease of the land should be cancelled.
The petition said that on June 19, 2015, the Chief Minister of Sindh had decided to distribute 9,552 acres of land to the families of martyred soldiers of Pakistan Army on the basis of ownership rights.
For which the Chief Minister had instructed the Chief Secretary and the Forest Department to send for summary approval of the change in the status of forests in Shikarpur district and other districts.
The petition stated that the Nasri Forest of Shaheed Benazirabad (Nawabshah) was given to Bahria Town for the construction of their mega project.
The petitioner said that thousands of acres of Kathoor Reserve Forest and Green Belt land in Karachi were allotted to Bahria Town, the seizure of forest land across the country is a part of their previous practice regarding protected forests in Lahore and Rawalpindi.
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– 2024-04-30 22:19:41
