KARACHI: While a division bench of the Sindh High Court questioned the Superhighway’s mere conversion to the M-9 motorway, the National Highway Authority (NHA) notified the justices that plans were in the works to build a different motorway that would connect Karachi and Hyderabad.
When the bench made up of Justice Salahuddin Panhwar and Justice Amjad Ali Sahito questioned why the NHA turned an already-existing Superhighway into a motorway and why the authority was not building a new motorway between Karachi and Hyderabad, the NHA responded through its legal representatives.
The majority of the 70 petitions that the bench was considering were about land issues along the M-9 highway and were submitted between 2017 and 2021.
The SHC had ordered the NHA to submit information on the properties that were situated inside the boundaries of the Karachi–Hyderabad motorway at the prior hearing.
Bench challenges the Superhighway’s transformation into the M-9 motorway.
The report was filed by the NHA’s attorney at the beginning of the Wednesday hearing.
The bench pointed out that the now-gone Superhighway had eateries and gas stations previously.
It also inquired as to whether the Sindh government and NHA had reached any sort of arrangement about the purchase of land needed for the motorway.
Justice Panhwar stated that the state should be in charge of giving the general public access to essential amenities, such as a road network.
One of the petitioners’ attorneys stated that it appeared the federal and provincial administrations were at odds over territory.
A citizen’s right to enter any highway cannot be prohibited, according to the counsel, yet fencing M-9 had placed such restrictions in place.
He clarified that while the “zero point” of M-9 was situated inside the provincial metropolis, toll plazas on any highway connecting two cities had to be constructed outside of municipal limits.
Judge Panhwar further stated that the subject matter arose from the Superhighway’s conversion to a motorway. He questioned why the NHA was not constructing a new motorway between Sindh’s two largest cities in accordance with contemporary standards and converting the M-9 back into a Superhighway.
All the cities in the path would be impacted if Grand Trunk Road were to become a highway by adding an additional lane, the bench observed.
Judge Panhwar stated that the Council of Common Interest might be used to resolve disagreements between the federal and provincial governments on the land dispute.
The NHA’s legal representative argued that by constructing bridges and underpasses, the cities were given amenities.
The bench noted that every route featured a toll plaza and that the public’s only choice was to pay taxes in order to use these highways.
The Bench further pointed out that all provinces, with the exception of Sindh, were building motorways.
The NHA attorneys argued that the federal government could only supply land for projects of this nature because there were approximately Rs. 40 billion in private investments on M-9.
They believed that Chinese and Pakistani officials were working on a different road project that would connect the province’s two largest cities.
The court mentioned that the NHA chairman had submitted an undertaking around five years prior, promising to replace the outdated toll tax system with a new one, regarding the collection of toll taxes.
The NHA’s attorney stated that no toll tax was being collected from Bahria Town’s citizens.
The bench stated that a proper order on the petitions will be rendered later after hearing the parties involved in great detail.
In 2017, the NHA filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Court (SHC) challenging a move by the Sindh government to lower the right-of-way (ROW) limit and invalidate mutation records. The NHA claimed that these actions were taken without the necessary authority’s approval and that it was not compensated for these actions.
Numerous people later came before the court to assert their ownership to the subject land.
