KARACHI: SHC orders inspection of ‘illegal’ building
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, April 1: The Sindh High Court ordered on Tuesday inspection of a 17-storey building being constructed on Sharea Faisal in alleged violation not only of the approved plan but also of the building control law.
A division bench, comprising Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice S. Ali Aslam Jafri, directed the SHC nazir to submit his inspection report by April 4 when the petition would again come up for hearing.
Making his preliminary submissions in favour of a writ petition challenging the construction of Sarina Pride, Barrister Naim-ur-Rahman said the Karachi Building Control Authority could not have allowed the construction of a building four times higher than its covered area. However, the developer was violating even this KBCA-approved ratio and the highrise structure was projected to be over six times its ground floor area in height.
Another public interest petition challenging a 2002 ordinance purporting to amend the Sindh Building Control Ordinance, 1979, in order to regularize encroachments and other violations on payment of fines was adjourned to April 15 for non-availability of a provincial government law officer and paucity of time. The petition, also filed through Barrister Rahman, assails the Sindh Regulation and Control (Use of Plots and Construction of Buildings) Ordinance, 2002, for being repugnant to the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
The petition says the law seeks to override, besides the building control law and the superior court judgments against encroachments, the provisions of the Constitution and is, therefore, void. A right guaranteed by the Constitution cannot be taken away by a statute. It punishes the law-abiding builders who adhere to the building rules and regulations and rewards violators on payment of fines. The real objective of the ordinance is not regulation of construction of residential and commercial buildings but monetary gain at the expense of environment and quality of civic life.
HEARING PUT OFF: Justice Mohammed Sadiq Leghari of the Sindh High Court adjourned on Tuesday the hearing of a quashment appeal of Asif Ali Zardari, a former senator and husband of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, in which he prayed for the quashment of proceedings against him pending before the judicial magistrate South Karachi, adds PPI.
Farooq H. Naik, counsel for Asif Zardari, could not appear in the court upon which the hearing was fixed for a date in office.
Asif Zardari is facing trial before the judicial magistrate South in a Qisas and Diyat case.
According to the prosecution, an FIR was lodged at Civil Lines police station in Karachi that the accused was arrested under various sections of different laws and was on remand for seven days. During the remand, Asif Zardari attempted to commit suicide which is an offence under section 325 of the Qisas and Diyat Ordinance.
