Land worth billions: PTCL fights hard to ward off land grabbers

Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has taken back the possession of land worth billions of rupee encroached by an influential group through Sindh High Court and local administration, said PTCL Chief Human Resource Officer Syed Mazhar Hussain here on Wednesday.

Speaking at a press conference Hussain said that a dispute has arisen regarding plots of land located at Malir Halt in Karachi, just off Shahrah-e-Faisal concerning their rightful ownership. He added that the land in question was in fact owned and managed by PTCL.

It has been revealed from records that the land under dispute was the property of the Telephone and Telegraph Department, which preceded the establishment of PTCL, and was in its possession since the 1960s. When PTCL was incorporated by the government of Pakistan under the Pakistan Telecommunication Act, 1996, in pursuance of Section 35 of the Act, the government transferred all properties, rights and liabilities and was given the authority to own, manage and control its assets.

Hussain added that the facts show that it was in the late 1950s and 1960s that PTCL’s predecessor organisation had acquired land in Malir for the establishment of Telecommunications and Training facilities. A residential colony was also established for the staff working at the facilities. For many years, the properties remained under the peaceful possession of the Telecommunication authorities.

It was reported that in 2013, a person called Murtaza Khoso, who was backed by influential personalities of Sindh, approached the Sindh Civil Administration through an application and claimed that the land located in front of the Pakistan Printing Press belongs to him and not to PTCL which was occupying it. He was subsequently able to unlawfully occupy some 10 acres of the said land. It is also said that he employed over 100 persons to build a boundary wall around the encroached land.

It is reported that later the Federal Government and some diplomatic channels intervened and the Sindh Civil Administration was forced to issue orders that the land should be vacated by the encroachers, namely Murtaza Khoso and the people backing him since it was the rightful property of PTCL.

For its part, PTCL also submitted an application to the Sindh High Court and won an order of Status Quo in its favour. In December 2017, the same land mafia was again encouraged by influential personalities and their lackeys in the police department to violate the Sindh High Court Status Quo Order and encroach the Duct Factory which PTCL had built on the land. The boundary wall of the Duct Factory was demolished by the land grabbers while the PTCL security guards and other staff were severely manhandled. The PTCL equipment stored at the premises was also destroyed.

According to latest reports, Murtaza Khoso again approached the authorities to have the land vacated by PTCL so that he could take its possession. He also instructed his staff to build another boundary wall on the premises under his instructions.

It has also been found out that despite the lapse of many years, no action has been taken against corrupt officials within the Sindh Revenue Department and they are still making attempts to violate the Sindh High Court Status Quo order with the connivance of influential personnel, PTCL Chief Human Resource Officer added.

The Government of Pakistan owns 62 per cent shares of PTCL and it is being dragged into baseless land disputes for personal gains, Hussain concluded.