Mayor, LG secretary issued notices over Beach Park handover to private body

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday issued notices to Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab, the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), the local government secretary, the KMC director general of parks and horticulture and other respondents on a petition challenging the handing over of Beach View Park to a private organisation for the construction of a museum.

A two-member constitutional bench headed by Justice Muhammad Saleem Jessar also issued notice to the Sindh advocate general and fixed June 30 for the next hearing. The court directed the respondents to file their comments before the next date.

The petition was filed by City Council Opposition Leader Advocate Saifuddin along with a Jamaat-i-Islami council member. In their plea, they named the local government secretary, KMC, the Karachi mayor and the DG parks and horticulture KMC as respondents. The petitioners argued that the City Council had adopted a resolution in March that was flawed both procedurally and substantively and through which the park was awarded to a private body.

During the preliminary hearing, counsel for the petitioners, Usman Farooq, contended that the disputed resolution concerned what he described as the unlawful commercialisation of Beach View Park, a public open space in Clifton that is under KMC’s custody, and the illegal allotment of three acres to a private organisation. He argued that the petitioners had objected to the resolution on the floor of the City Council and were directly affected by its passage.

The counsel further submitted that the resolution was passed in violation of the procedural requirements of the Sindh Local Government Act, 2013, and that the rights of the petitioners and other elected members to deliberate on the matter were suppressed. He argued that the relevant agenda item concerning Beach View Park had not been issued or circulated to City Council members before the March 12 meeting.

According to the petition, the March 12 resolution allowed Beach View Park land to be handed over to the Citizens Archive of Pakistan for the construction of a museum. The petitioners argued that the move lacked legal authority and contravened binding judgments of the Supreme Court and the SHC.

The counsel also told the court that the park had served the public for decades and was designated as a public open space under the master plan and applicable statutory frameworks. He maintained that the site was protected under several binding judicial rulings.

In their petition, the applicants asked the SHC to declare the impugned resolution illegal, ultra vires and void ab initio. They also sought a restraining order to prevent the respondents from awarding, leasing or transferring any part of the park to any private entity.