KARACHI: The Karachi Development Authority (KDA) on Thursday lodged FIRs at Boat Basin Police Station against officials of the Parks and Horticulture Department (PHD) and the Anti-Encroachment Department (AED) of the Karachi of Metropolitan Corporation (KMC). This step was taken after the department employees demolished an illegally-constructed boundary wall inside the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Park. During a visit to Benazir Bhutto Park last Wednesday, Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar had said that KMC would remove all encroachments from the park. Waseem was also present at the time of the demolition. “On receiving complaints, I visited the park. It came to light that the park was being encroached upon with proper planning,” he said. Last year, the Sindh government had taken control of the park. “This itself is an illegal act,” Waseem said. The mayor attributed the FIR against the KMC officials to bad governance of Sindh government. According to KMC officials, no concrete structure is allowed inside any of the parks. A sailing club had been using the encroached land of the park for commercial purposes, they said. “The management of the sailing club was also encroaching upon further land of the park,” the officials said. Naeer Lakhani, the AED KMC senior director, claimed that the Bhutto Park remained a legal supervisory site of the entity. “Intervention of KDA in the matter is illegal and unfair. KMC has yet to receive a copy of the FIR. We have been looking after this park for a long time,” he said. “My name is also in the FIR despite the fact that I had been out of city at the time of the operation,” Liaquat Ali Khan, adviser to the mayor, said. Akhlaq Baig, the KDA Parks director, said that Nasir Abbas, the KDA director general, had asked the KDA Legal Department to nominate Afaq Mirza, the KMC Parks director-general, Liaquat Ali Khan, adviser to the mayor, Nazeer Lakhani, AED senior director, and other nine other officials in the FIR. Baig claimed that land control of the Bhutto and Ibne Qasim parks rested with the KDA. “Action will be taken against those officers found involved in damaging the government property,” he said.