KARACHI, Nov 28: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday gave the Karachi Building Control Authority three months to inspect 26 buildings in the city for any violations committed by their builders and proceed against them in accordance with the law.

A division bench, comprising Justices Zahid Kurban Alavi and Zia Perwez directed the city government and the civic agencies to provide assistance to the KBCA in ejectment of illegal occupants where necessary and in the demolition operations.

A writ petition was moved by eight people and an organization (Shehri) on the basis of KBCA advertizements in newspapers, warning the public against violations by the builders of the 26 under-construction residential and commercial complexes in 1998. The petitioners submitted that the buildings posed a threat to public safety and health. The KBCA took no action to demolish them after issuing the public warning.

Appearing for the KBCA, Advocate Shahid Jamil Khan submitted that a couple of petitioners were also represented on the authority’s oversee committee but they did nothing to check the violations or activate the KBCA against them. The public warning that constituted the basis of the petition was issued in 1998 but the petitioners approached the court in May 2000. He said a number of violations were regularized under the 2002 ordinance with the approval of the provincial-government appointed oversee committee, which had some of the petitioners on it.

The remaining violations, the KBCA counsel assured the court, would be dealt with in accordance with the law. However, the authority was handicapped by the absence of police and city government help. With a 35-strong demolition squad, it could neither evict illegal occupants nor undertake demolitions. Besides, the petition was not maintainable as an SHC bench had held that public interest litigation could be initiated only in the Supreme Court under Article 184 (3) of the Constitution. There was no room for such litigation before the high court under Article 199.

The bench disposed of the petition by asking the KBCA to act in accordance with the law and take action against all those responsible for ignoring violations, including the members of the oversee committee.

Among the violative structures were Jason Trade Tower, Fortune Centre, Shaheen Towers, Amber Castle, Al Awan Hospital, Doctors Plaza and White House in the PECHS; Tax Free Plaza and Faisal Towers in the Karachi Cooperative Housing Societies Union; four plazas in the Sindhi Muslim Cooperative Housing Society; and one at Deh Safooran.

They were declared “dangerous” in the KBCA public notices. They were built either without authorization or without approved plans.

Many of them were repugnant to the earthquake resistance design.