KARACHI, April 2: The Sindh High Court issued notices to the city and provincial governments and the Karachi Building Control Authority in a writ petition seeking enforcement of building control and town planning laws to arrest further decline in the quality of life in the city.

Moved by Shehri - Citizens for Better Environment, the petition says that the civic agencies and public utilities have failed to discharge their legal obligations and protect the most fundamental right to life enshrined in Articles 8,9,14,23,24 and 25 of the Constitution.

The negligence on part of the two governments, the civic agencies and the public utilities, the petition said, had resulted in a worsening water and power supply situation; overflowing sewage; utter shortage of parks and playing spaces for children; lack of other amenities like educational institutions and community /marriage halls; traffic jams and parking problems; noise and air pollution; law and order, security and social problems; breakdown of municipal services like garbage collection and burning of refuse; and ruination of roads and encroachment of footpaths.

The petition particularly pointed out two buildings, including Diplomat Residency, being constructed on plot number 13/CL-6, Civil Lines and plot GRE 394, Garden East Quarters. Diplomat Residency is a six-storeyed 45-flat structure being raised on a 5003-square-yard plot meant for a single tenement house under the 1935 Sale Conditions.

It was to have a built-up area of 13,854 square feet, which has gone up to 83,133 square feet under the building plan forwarded by the city government and sanctioned by the KBCA. Water and power supply provision would go up from 40 kilowatts and 1,500 gallons daily to 850kw and 20,000 gallons, respectively.

The city government's master-plan group of offices was not consulted nor objections invited from the residents of the area. The building plan was approved without technical justification for the proposed change of land use and without ensuring availability of infrastructure and enhanced supply of water and power and provision of additional amenities.

Similarly, the owner of plot GRE 394 has been allowed to convert the 1860-square-yard residential bungalow plot into a six-flat complex, requiring enhanced supply of utilities and an expanded infrastructure.

Complaints in respect of both structures were lodged with the KBCA and the city government but the construction is continuing and the two building would soon be 'an accomplished fact'.

The petition came up before a division bench comprising Justices Ghulam Rabbani and Mohammad Afzal Soomro and it directed that notices be issued to the respondents. Additional Advocate- General Qazi Khalid Ali, who accepted notice on behalf of the provincial government, was asked to seek comments from the department concerned.

APPEALS: A division bench of the Sindh High Court, comprising Justice Wahid Bux Brohi and Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaffery, on Friday admitted for hearing the appeals filed by activists of the religious organization Khudam-ul-Islam against their conviction in donation cases and issued notice to the state, adds PPI.