ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Ports and Shipping on Tuesday formed a sub-committee to investigate encroachments on the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) land.
MNA Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani will be the convener of the sub-committee that will hold further inquiry into the issue of encroachments. Aamir Ali Khan Magsi, Salman Khan Baloch and Romana Khurshid Alam will be its other members.
The standing committee met at the Parliament House, under the chairmanship of MNA Ghulam Mustafa Shah, and discussed findings of various investigations held into the affairs of KPT, including audit, land encroachment and hiring of KPT officers on discretionary quota.
Several KPT representatives briefed committee members. They said that the KPT owned 18,936 acres (76.6 square kilometers) of land in Younusabad, Grax Village, Muhammadi Colony, Machar Colony, MTR Colony, Hijrat Colony, Gulshan Colony, Sikandar Colony, Majeed Colony, Docks Colony and several other areas of Karachi.
The committee was informed that KPT was pursuing cases against several individuals and government departments to regain land ownership. “KPT established an anti-encroachment department in 2009 for protecting its land. We have also apprehended several land-grabbers and handed them over to police for further proceedings,” the committee was informed.
The representatives said that in most land-grabbing cases, the accused produced allotment letters issued by the Sindh Revue Department and there was a dispute on the matter of jurisdiction between the KPT and the Sindh Board of Revenue. The committee members were told that as a preventive measure, KPT was constructing a 3.5 km long wall along Machar Colony.
It would be completed in six months, they said. The KPT chairman recommended that the KPT Police Station be placed under the administrative control of the KPT. The committee directed the ministry to submit a report on holding an external audit of KPT by an international firm. MNA Shah termed laws relating to KPT audit outdated and recommended amendments.
Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo assured the committee that the ministry would fully cooperate with the newly-formed sub-committee. He said that the ministry was in process of amending laws to make external audit binding on a yearly basis.
He said that the KPT would need the committee’s support to get its land vacated from encroachers and land mafia. “The committee is also holding talks with the Sindh government to reach out-of-court settlements on land disputes,” he said.