KARACHI, Jan 6: The Sindh High Court directed the builders of a centrally located city plaza on Tuesday to suspend forthwith all construction activity and stop selling or booking apartments and offices.

In fact, several residential and commercial floors in various blocks of the Midtown project on M. A. Jinnah Road face outright demolition if the Karachi Building Control Authority has its way. Only three floors above the ground floor might be left standing after necessary chopping of their violative parts.

The restraint order came on a writ petition moved by the builders, PPB Corporation and Gharibnawaz Construction Company, through their attorney, Hashmat Ali, son of Mohammad Ali.

The petitioners sought a direction to the KBCA to rescind its "illegal" orders to withdraw the project's approved plan, cancel the no-objection certificate for sale of apartments, shops and offices and ban advertisements for sale and booking of flats, etc. in the plaza's basement, ground floor and the first three floors.

The petition came up before a division bench, comprising Justices Sabihuddin Ahmed and Amir Hani Muslim, on Dec 24. After briefly hearing the petitioner's counsel, Islam Hussain, the bench passed an ad interim order in favour of the petitioners, issued a notice to the KBCA for Jan 6 and asked the SHC nazir to visit the site in the presence of all the parties involved in the meanwhile.

As a vacation division bench, comprising Chief Justice Sayed Saeed Ashhad and Justice Mushir Alam, took up the petition on Tuesday, the KBCA filed a counter-affidavit and the nazir his report through the SHC office. Advocate Islam Hussain sought adjournment to file a rejoinder.

Vehemently contesting the petition, the ad interim order and the request for adjournment, Advocate Shahid Jamil Khan, the KBCA counsel, pressed for early hearing and vacation of the restraint order of Dec 24 against the authority. He said the matter was of urgent public importance, involving a large number of prospective purchasers and owners of flats, shops and apartments.

He prayed for a restraint order against the builders pending the proceedings to avoid further violation of the law by them and to protect the interest of innocent purchasers.

He said the approved plan for basement and ground-plus-three floors was cancelled because of the persistent violation by the builders of the Sindh Building Control Ordinance, 1979, the 1979 and 1986 ban on highrise buildings, the provincial government notification of 1991 restricting the height of the buildings in the vicinity of the Quaid-i-Azam's mazar, building regulations of 2002 and an SHC order of the same year passed on a plaint moved by the builders themselves. "The builders have been ignoring the KBCA notices and warnings and are grossly at fault", the counsel submitted.

The counter-affidavit submitted by Advocate Shahid Jamil Khan on the KBCA's behalf said two separate and distinct construction plans were provisionally approved for Sea Breeze Midtown projects on plots MC-4 and MC-7 in the Lines Area, Jinnah Road. The plans, approved in March 1986, envisaged 16 floors in addition to the basement and the ground floors for the two 169-meter high structures.

In June 1986, however, the Sindh government banned the construction of highrise buildings in Karachi. The builders were duly informed of the ban. In September 1991, the government issued a notification categorically "reaffirming and confirming the decision of the Quaid-i-Azam Mazar Management Board, dated January 29, 1979, to the effect that no building above the podium level of the mazar, that is, 91 feet above the mean sea level, will be constructed within a radius of six furlongs or 1.2 kilometres'.

The building regulations of 2002 further reiterated the ban on highrise buildings in the mazar's vicinity. The regularization ordinance of 2002 exempted the prohibited area around the mazar from its operation. Thus no violation of the height curb on buildings near the mazar could be regularized even under the 2002 law, which was valid for one year.

The KBCA claimed that it cancelled the plans and the no- objection certificates in August 1986. The builders instituted a suit and the high court restrained the KBCA from obstructing the construction business on the two plots, which were subsequently merged and named Midtown Phase-I and Phase-II.

The defendant authority moved an application in the 1990 suit in September 2002 and this time the court restrained the builders from creating third party interest in the project by way of booking or sale of flats, shops and offices. The KBCA was allowed to take "preventive measures" according to the law.

The KBCA also stated in its counter-affidavit that there were violations on the first three floors also. The height of the roof has been reduced from 14 feet to 10 feet, the position of the staircase has been changed, the two plots have been amalgamated and most of the balconies have been converted into room projections. The SHC nazir said in his report that nine and 11 floors in addition to the basement and the ground floors have been constructed in the apartment and commercial blocks, respectively, of plot MC-4. Thirteen floors have been raised on the adjoining MC-7.

The KBCA counter-affidavit failed to explain how the two building plans were approved in 1986 after the mazar management board's decision banning highrises within 1.2 kilometres of the mazar.