KARACHI, July 7: A division bench of the Sindh High Court dismissed as not maintainable a writ petition moved by a non-governmental organization against violation of construction rules by a builder.
The petitioner, Karachi Watch and Care Society, alleged that a building was being constructed in Javed Bahria Co-operative Housing Society, Hawkesbay Road, Mauripur. No owner or builder had been allowed to raise more than two storeys in addition to the ground floor. However, one builder was out to construct a four-storeyed structure in violation of the rules, and the Karachi Building Control Authority was taking no action against him.
Contesting the petition, Additional Advocate-General Suleiman Habibullah submitted that the law under which the petitioner society was registered, the Registration of Societies Act, 1860, did not allow the registered societies to indulge in litigation over construction disputes. No registered society could engage itself in urban planning issues without violating its rules and the parent law. Societies could be formed and registered for purposes of charity, recreation, libraries and medical care but not for enforcement of building rules.
The petitioner, the AAG argued, was not only not an aggrieved party but was also barred by law to agitate the matter involved. It could not invoke the high court’s writ jurisdiction under Article 199 of the Constitution, he said.
Agreeing, the division bench, which consisted of Justices S. Ahmed Sarwana and Zia Perwez, dismissed the petition in limine.Woman allowed to go with her father
WOMAN ALLOWED: A housewife, alleged to have been detained by her husband, was allowed by Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaferi to go with her father.
The three minor children of the estranged couple, alleged to have been separated from their mother, were also allowed to go with their mother and maternal grandfather.
The respondent husband, Mohammad Amin, produced his allegedly confined wife and children on Monday morning as directed by the court on the last date. He, however, objected to the transfer of the children’s custody in exercise of the high court’s writ jurisdiction.
Justice Jaferi observed that the matter was for the guardian court to decide, but the children could temporarily reside with their mother in view of their tender age, which ranges from five years to 10 months.
