KARACHI - Following the directives of Sindh Local Government Minister Sharjeel Memon, the anti-encroachment department of the KMC on Friday took action against four marriage lawns/halls in Gulshan-e-Iqbal and North Nazimabad.
It demolished and sealed these lawns which include Junagarh Marriage Hall, Faran Club International and Civic Marriage Lawn in Gulshan-e-Iqbal and Florence Marriage Lawn in North Nazimabad.
According to details, the defunct KDA allotted the 1937 sq feet land at Rs12 per sq feet to Dr Nusrat Aziz in 1970 for construction of a hospital in five years time, however Dr Aziz failed to do so on which the governing body of KDA on Feb 7, 1982 cancelled the ownership rights of this plot.
During this Dr Nusrat Aziz appointed Brigadier Jamil as special attorney, who on Dec 2, 1997 allowed the builders to do construction work with the endorsement of Pakistani embassy in Washington DC. When defunct KDA begun action on this the attorney filed a case against it in the high court and the court issued show-cause notice on the construction of Civic Marriage Lawn on the amenity plot.
The attorney was repeatedly warned to stop the commercial activities on the plot which was allotted for the public welfare purpose but he did not paid attention on them. KMC now took action on Friday and sealed the premises after razing the marriage lawn.
Similarly the plot no ST-2-1 and 2-C measuring 4,000 square yards were allotted to the Junagarh State Federation for public welfare purpose in 1978; however the Junagarh State Federation did not used these plots for public welfare works and construct marriage hall on it. The defunct KDA had in 1994 issued various show-cause notices to them and warned them to stop the commercial activities on the said property but the JSF never paid heed on it therefore KMC demolished the construction on these plots and sealed them.


The plot ST 1-A and 1-B measuring 2000 square yards used for the Faran Club International were also allotted in 1975 for the promotion of social and cultural activities but they also violated the rules and regulation and were issued with repeated show-cause notices for this and due to no action from them this club was also demolished and sealed by KMC.
The Florence Marriage Lawn was built on the plot ST-2 in Block H, North Nazimabad. This plot was allotted to Dr Abdul Jamil Khan in December 8, 1964 for construction of a hospital for providing medical treatment to the poor and deserving patients. However, said plot was transferred by Dr Jamil on January 5, 1993 to Babar Khan Ghori, Khurshid Ahmed and Badri Sadri.
The defunct KDA issued show-cause notice regarding the transfer of this plot and repeatedly warned that the plots could only be used for the construction of hospital; however no attention was given to these warnings and therefore the KMC anti encroachments department demolished the marriage hall and other constructions on it and took possession of the plot on Friday.
This may be noted that the KMC Administrator Saqib Ahmed Soomro while exercising the powers of the council gave approval of the resolution under which the KMC and defunct KDA were allowed to cancel the lease and allotment of all such amenity plots and seal them which were not used for their original purpose.