Dec 27, 2021: According to local media reports, he Supreme Court (SC) on Monday ordered immediate removal of Murtaza Wahab, Advisor to Chief Minister Sindh, from the post of Administrator Karachi.

A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin heard the case related to gutter baghicha. Karachi Administrator Murtaza Wahab appeared in court today.

Earlier, the apex court had directed the Karachi administrator to remove the encroachments from the premises of Gutter Baghicha Park and restore it to its original form. During the hearing, there was a heated exchange between Wahab and the court, on which the Chief Justice expressed his anger and said that the administrator was playing politics in the court.

Chief Justice Pakistan subsequently ordered Wahab’s removal and instructed the Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah to appoint an “impartial and competent” person.

The case of the Gutter Baghicha stands thus; 13 years ago, Shehri, an NGO, took the matter to the court saying that the KMC Officers Cooperative Housing Society grabbed 200 acres of land for itself. The Supreme Court had ordered the city district government of Karachi to report back on how it had followed these orders after three months.

Later, in 2018, 200 acres illegally given to KMC OCHS were cancelled. Following which in 2020, the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation announced that it had retrieved 362 acres of government land from illegal grabbing.