KARACHI, Nov 24: The Sindh High Court stayed on Monday further construction on a disputed plot in the Pakistan Employees Cooperative Housing Society.
A suit instituted by several residents of the locality through Advocate Mohammad Zahid Khan alleged that the plot (number 7-L/2, Block 2, PECHS) was reserved for a children’s park but was illegally allotted to a person, who sold it to another in violation of the lease deed. The purchaser was now constructing a multi-storeyed building. Thus the children had been deprived of a park and the residents not only of an open space but of the easements of air and light. No action had been taken by any civic agency to check the violation and protect the residents’ rights.
The court asked its deputy nazir to inspect the site and submit a report. In the meanwhile, the defendant was restrained from raising further constructions on the plot.
PLEA DISMISSED: The Supreme Court, meanwhile, upheld the Sindh High Court orders dismissing petitions of the Karachi Watch and Care Society against alleged violations in the construction of Gul Centre, Saddar.
An SHC division bench, comprising Justices Sabihuddin Ahmed and S. Ali Aslam Jafri, had held that the petitioner society was not an aggrieved party.
Another bench, comprising Chief Justice Sayed Saeed Ashhad and Justice Ghulam Rabbani, had dismissed a review petition against the dismissal order, holding that public interest litigation could only be conducted under Article 184 (3) and not under Article 199.
The society moved the Supreme Court for leave to appeal against the SHC orders, which was heard on Monday at the SC’s Karachi registry by a bench, comprising Justices Nazim Hussain Siddiqui and Hamid Ali Mirza. Refusing leave, the bench observed in a short order that the petition was time-barred. The petitioner had failed to explain the delay in filing the appeal.
It also noted the submission of Karachi Building Control Authority Additional Controller (Legal Affairs) Shahid Jamil Khan that the violative parts of the structure had been demolished and the building regularized under the 2002 regularization ordinance.
