KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday turned down the request of Machar Colony residents seeking stay order against ongoing anti-encroachment drive in their area.

A division bench, headed by Justice Muhammad Junaid Ghaffar, also sought comments from the provincial as well as civic authorities and sought their respective replies to a petition by April 19.

While rejecting the request, the bench observed that it couldn’t issue any stay order against the anti-encroachment operation since the land on which the houses of the petitioners were built belongs to the Pakistan Railways.

The residents have moved the high court against anti-encroachment drive in Machar Colony to vacate the land of Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) from grabbers. They requested the court to restrain the authorities concerned from demolishing their houses by issuing a stay order.—PPI