November 20, 2003	Thursday	Ramazan 24, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, Nov 19: The Supreme Court reserved on Wednesday its judgment on a high-rise building in Karachi, after three days of continued hearing of a case which was pending since 1993.

The case was heard by a bench, comprising Chief Justice Sheikh Riaz Ahmad, Justice Qazi Mohammad Farooq and Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, from Monday.

The case pertained to a seven-floor high-rise building, Summer Plaza Tower, in the midst of a residential area. The case was initiated by Abdul Razzak Adamjee and some of his neighbours before the Sindh High Court, complaining that the Tower would be used as commercial facility and become a “public nuisance.”

Barrister Naimur Rehman, representing the petitioner, argued for three days, to convince that the high-rise tower would become a cause for traffic congestion and tax the public utilities which had been originally planned for a two-storey house for a limited number of residents.

In his reply, Fakhruddin G. Ibrahim rejected the complaint of the residents saying that the construction of residential flats in the Tower was in accordance with the building regulations.

He said the proposed place of which only three storeys had been raised so far was never meant for commercial tenants and the allegation that the building would become a public nuisance, was misplaced.

Mr Fakhruddin G. Ibrahim also denied that multi-storeyed tower was being raised after the conversion of the residential plot into a commercial plot in a residential area, and said this was completely wrong assumption.