SHC orders evacuation of Moon Gardens

[Salman]

Karachi: Sindh High Court announced its final decision regarding the evacuation of Moon Gardens apartments on November 12, rendering the residents of the 180 units homeless.

According to a news source, the evacuation order for the project was first delivered on September 29 following a petition filed by the Railways Cooperative Housing Society petition which stated that the residential building had been illegally constructed on its land.

After the final decision was announced, stakeholders began to point fingers at one another. The builder produced lease papers signed by the Karachi Development Authority (KDA) and the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA)’s No-Objection Certificate. All utility providers had given connections in the building.

Provincial Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah said the land belonged to the Sindh government, while SBCA spokesperson Farhan Qaiser claimed that 25% of the land belonged to the KDA and 75% belonged to the Cantonment Board Faisal.

However, Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s master plan refuted these assertions, showing that the land was originally allotted to Safari Park by the Department of Revenue in 1970.

Residents of the 180 apartments, essentially homeless through no direct fault of their own, protested the eviction for three consecutive days, from November 9 to November 12, but to no avail.