The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) has taken over the 38-acre Askari Park in the metropolis, following order of the Supreme Court wherein the military was asked to hand over the park to the KMC.
In its order issued in December last year, the apex court had asked the military authorities to grant possession of the park to the KMC in two weeks.
Dawn quoted KMC spokesperson Sikander Baloch as saying that the civic agency formally took over the park after a meeting of KMC Director General Parks Junaid Khan and Senior Director Estate Imtiaz Ali Abro with Pakistan Army authorities at the park.
The park was constructed on the land that was vacated when Karachi's old vegetable market moved to Motorway-9 during former president Pervez Musharraf's era.
According to the statement issued by the military authorities during the hearing of the case last year, the military had received the park on a 99-year lease. To this, the then top judge Justice Gulzar Ahmad had said that the land was given to the military to be used as a park, but it was being used as a commercial area. The apex court had then also ordered an end to all commercial activities at the park and said that it must be opened to the public at the earliest.
In its order issued in December last year, the apex court had asked the military authorities to grant possession of the park to the KMC in two weeks.
Dawn quoted KMC spokesperson Sikander Baloch as saying that the civic agency formally took over the park after a meeting of KMC Director General Parks Junaid Khan and Senior Director Estate Imtiaz Ali Abro with Pakistan Army authorities at the park.
The park was constructed on the land that was vacated when Karachi's old vegetable market moved to Motorway-9 during former president Pervez Musharraf's era.
According to the statement issued by the military authorities during the hearing of the case last year, the military had received the park on a 99-year lease. To this, the then top judge Justice Gulzar Ahmad had said that the land was given to the military to be used as a park, but it was being used as a commercial area. The apex court had then also ordered an end to all commercial activities at the park and said that it must be opened to the public at the earliest.