HYDERABAD: A division bench of Sindh High Court`s Hyderabad circuit comprising Justice Nadeem Akhtar and Justice Khadim Hussain Tunio has directed Bahria Town Karachi (BTK), Board of Revenue (BoR) and the Sindh forest & wildlife secretary to submit mother entries of entiresubject land i.e. entries made in record of rights in the names of original allottees.

Advocate Mohammad Asif, appearing for his senior Farook Naek to represent respondent BTK, had sought the adjournment.

Petitioner Salahuddin submitted in court that the BTK-2 land in Thano Bula Khan was situated on Karachi-Hyderabad side of M-9 and close to highly sensitive defence installations.

He claimed that the project could undermine and compromise defence of Pakistan.

The petitioner prayed the court to form a joint investigation team to physically survey and investigate title and ownership of land, alleging thatthe project was being executed on state/public land and entries shown in the scattered pieces of land of BTK-2 were bogus.

In its counter affidavit, the BTK submitted in court that the PAF Base Bholari was not located close to the project. In most cities of Pakistan, army bases and cantonment areas were surrounded by or located near civilian housing societies, such as the GHQ in Rawalpindi which was within the city`s centre. The respondent pointed out that the Faisal Air Base and Masroor Air Base were also located within the centre of Karachi. Other housing projects were also being executed adjacent to the respondent`s project,the counsel argued and prayed that the petition was liable to be dismissed.

He contended that the petitioner discussed factual controversies by referring to the alleged fake and fabricated entries of land and also claimed mismanagement in survey numbers of the land where the housing project was being executed.

He said factual controversies could not be decided in writ jurisdiction and, as such, issues could only be decided through evidence.

He stated that it was a wellsettled principle of law that disputed questions of facts and factual controversies should not be resolved by high court.

Petitioner Salahuddin con-tended that scattered pieces of land in various dehs could not form a single piece of land on which the BTK-2 layout plan was shown and being developed.

He urged the court that the proposed JIT should comprise senior officers from FIA, National Accountability Bureau (NAB), ISI, MI, IB, member judicial and land utilisation BoR Sindh, land Utilisation, survey of Pakistan, land records officer and other officers.

He said FIA and NAB should be directed to prosecute officials involved in issuing noobjection certificates (NOCs) to the respondent party and making bogus entries in favour of BTK and private beneficiaries.