After Nasla Tower, the Supreme Court has also ordered the demolition of Tijori Heights in Karachi after declaring it illegal, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
A three-judge bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmad was hearing a petition filed by Pakistan Railways against the construction of Tijori Heights in Karachi Circular Railways land encroachment case at SC Karachi Registry on Thursday.
Lawyers Raza Rabbani and Abid Zubairi appeared before the court on behalf of Tijori Heights.
While giving his remarks, Justice Ijazul Ahsan said that the method of transfer of land was wrong in this case. He wondered how the Tijori Heights land was transferred from one survey number to the other. He observed that the land was illegally transferred from survey number 190 to survey number 188.
“The method which has been used to transfer land comes under criminal offence,” Justice Ijaz added.
Tijori Heights’ lawyer Raza Rabbani argued that 1.7 acre land was transferred as per the law. There was no piece of land in survey number 190, that’s why the piece of land was taken from survey number 188.
Justice Ijaz told Mr Rabbani that his client also stole stamp duty and he could be fined 10 times for this offence.
Mr Rabbani informed the court that the land was transferred to his client Ms Shaista Qureshi while taking care of all legal aspects.
“But your client doesn’t have any sale deed of survey number 188. She has submitted the sale deed of survey number 190 only,” Justice Ijaz insisted.
Mr Rabbani said that his client only bought the land.
Justice Ijaz retorted that’s what exactly he was saying that in this case the title was not changed.
“You were required to carry out the sale deed of survey number 188 instead of survey number 190,” the judge said adding that the property at least wasn’t yours at that time.
Mr Rabbani told the court that his client’s sale deed was done in 2015.
On this, Justice Ijaz said that the transfer of land was carried out in such a hurry that mistakes were left in the transfer deed.
Mr Rabbani said that land situated in survey number 190 was occupied that’s why his client got alternate land in survey number 188.
Justice Ijaz objected that his client did not transfer the sale deed on title to survey number 188.
On this Mr Rabbani said that it seemed that the bench could not understand him. But Justice Qazi Muhammad Ameen Ahmad remarked that the bench fully understood the case.
“We including Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmad are unanimous that there is actually no case,” Justice Ameen Ahmad maintained.
The court observed that the title might have changed in the government departments files.
Justice Ijaz said that if Mr Rabbani’s client wanted to file a case against the government departments, she could do so. But it has been transpired that this property does not belong to his client, the justice observed.
Reporter Hassan Abbas, Bilal Ahmad