KARACHI, June 13: The Sindh High Court on Thursday restrained the Port Qasim Authority and other respondents from carrying out construction or any other activity on islands located at the western end of the Sindh coastal zone near Karachi.

A two-judge bench, headed by Justice Ahmed Ali M. Sheikh, also directed the respondents as well as the federal and provincial law officers to file their respective comments on the petition challenging the purported allotment of Bundal and Buddo islands to Bahria Town.

The petition was filed by Shahid Hussain Soomro, a worker of the Pakistan Muslim League (Functional), who impleaded the chief secretary, port and shipping secretary, PQA chairman, senior member of board of revenue and the chief executive officer of the Bahira Town, Islamabad, as respondents.

The petitioner, represented by Advocate Prof Fareed Ahmed Dayo, submitted that he was aggrieved by the deal of the valuable islands that were the lawful property of the Sindh government.

The counsel stated that the PQA was an authority of the federal government that had nothing to do with the allotment of valuable lands and islands belonging to the provincial government. He said it was a matter of record that the then chief minister had in 1974 approved the summary for allotment of 13,000 acres for the PQA. However, he said, it was clearly mentioned that the PQA would not use the allotted land for commercial purposes.

Advocate Dayo said the ownership of the land lay with the Board of Revenue that was vested with the right of ownership with its control over land utilisation. Besides, he said, the islands were endowed with the natural blessings such as mangrove forests and they were pillars to prevent the coastal population from the violent sea storms.

The counsel argued that the deal between the PQA and the Bahria Town was contrary to fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 19-A read with Article 4 of the Constitution.

The petitioner prayed to the court to declare that the allotment of the islands to Bahria Town was illegal, unlawful and ultra vires of the law and without jurisdiction. He also prayed to the court to restrain the respondents from carrying out any construction and agreement on the impugned property.

According to Pakistan Mahigeer Tehreek, a movement of the indigenous coastal fishermen communities of the country, the two islands were actually the two ends of one long island locally named as Dingi on the west and Bundar on the east.

The islands complex is located at the western end of the Sindh coastal zone bordered by Korangi, Phitti and Jhari creeks. The association of fishermen said that the Bundal Island was one of the biggest and highest of all islands along the Sindh coast with a length of about eight kilometres.

The width of the island varies — it is about four kilometres wide in the north and one kilometre in the south. There are shifting sand dunes on the island, some of them up to three metres high. A portion of the northern area of the island is covered at high water and has a thick growth of mangroves at the extreme northern point. The eastern coast, covered by sand dunes, is steep and easily approachable by boat. In the south of the island, the shallow patch of drying sand has developed into a new island namely Buddo (Dingi) Island, which is the outermost island of this series. The sandy part of the Bundal Island is under the influence of the monsoon winds.