There is good news for overseas Pakistanis, as the Malir Development Authority (MDA) has decided to hand over the land previously occupied by the Afghan settlement in Karachi to its genuine overseas Pakistani allottees, 24NewsHD TV channel reported on Friday.
According to sources, the Afghan settlement in Taiser Town had been built by encroaching on land originally allotted to overseas Pakistanis.
Under the new decision, plots located in Overseas Blocks 88-A, 90, and 91 will be handed back to their rightful owners once all illegal constructions have been completely demolished.
The MDA sources said that, except for the availability of electricity, all other civic facilities are already present on the land of the former Afghan settlement.
The operation to demolish an illegal Afghan settlement in Karachi entered its ninth consecutive day, with commercial shops and buildings being torn down on Friday.
According to Director of the Malir Development Authority (MDA) Farooq Bugti, around 50 percent of the houses in the settlement have already been demolished, and the remaining illegal structures will also be removed. He said the operation would take more time to complete.
Farooq Bugti stated that the writ of the state has been successfully established and that the operation is progressing effectively.
He added that nearby villages are also illegal settlements, but no decision has yet been made regarding their demolition.
The MDA official explained that many people were now claiming that the demolished properties belonged to Pakistanis.
“In reality,” he revealed, “these were houses vacated by Afghan nationals which have since been occupied by Pakistani nationals.”
Meanwhile, in the Punjab town of Arifwala, intelligence agencies, accompanied by the police, conducted a raid against undocumented Afghan nationals. Two Afghan citizens were arrested in the jurisdiction of the Sadar Police Station.
Authorities said the two men had been living in Pakistan for the past eight years using forged documents. They were taken into custody from the nearby village of 84/EB and shifted to an undisclosed location for further investigation.
The arrested Afghans, identified as Asadullah Khan and Ismail Khan, were reportedly working as watchmen in various villages in the area.
Reporters: Syad Rizwan, Usama Malik, and Shehzad Ahmad