The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday reserved its judgment on the petitions challenging the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) criminal proceedings against Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and Karachi Cotton Exchange (KCE) officials over the illegal possession of the KCE building and eviction orders.
The KMC and the KCE have challenged the FIA’s proceedings on the complaint of the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB), the sealing of the premises and the eviction orders. The FIA had registered a case against officials of the KCE Association, the KMC and the ETPB for “illegally occupying, leasing and profiting from the evacuee’s land in Karachi for decades”.
The petitioners’ counsel said that neither the ETPB nor the FIA has jurisdiction over the KCE building that had been lawfully leased to the KCE through a registered conveyance deed on July 22, 1936, and the lease is valid until 2081.
He said the evacuee property has become a provincial subject after the 18th amendment, and the Sindh Evacuee Act has repealed the Evacuee Trust Properties Act, 1975, to the extent of Sindh divesting the federal government’s and the ETPB’s authority.
The counsel said that no property can be declared evacuee after January 1, 1957, under the Pakistan (Administration of Evacuee Property) Act, 1957. He said the property in question has never been abandoned, and has remained continuously occupied since before Partition, bearing no evacuee or trust character.
He said that any dispute over the building would fall within the domain of the civil court. The impugned actions were taken without issuing any notice or hearing, and this amounts to malice and fraud upon the statute, he added.
He also said the FIA’s involvement in the matter is without jurisdiction and lacks any nexus with federal affairs, causing serious prejudice to the petitioner and serious disruption to the cotton trading sector.
An SHC division bench headed by Justice Adnanul Karim Memon said the FIA has hinted at converting the case into an inquiry, and questioned the FIA’s role in the presence of provincial law.
The ETPB’s counsel said the premises had been sealed by the ETPB, adding that the FIA had provided assistance to the ETPB. The traders’ counsel requested the court to direct the authorities to unseal the premises so that traders can carry out their businesses.
The court had already issued an interim order allowing KCE officials to access the sealed building, and restrained the FIA from causing any obstruction in their access.
