KARACHI, Aug 17: The Sindh High Court directed the police on Tuesday to provide all necessary assistance to the Karachi Building Control Authority in evacuating and demolishing violative structures, particularly in compliance with court orders.
The direction was made by a division bench, comprising Justices Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Maqbool Baqar, in the course of proceedings on a KBCA petition seeking the authority's empowerment to enforce building regulations.
The KBCA seeks amendments to the Sindh Building Control Ordinance, 1979, to facilitate availability of police and magisterial powers to it. It says that it is unable to discharge its legal obligations and demolish unauthorized buildings even when so ordered by the high court. No help was available from the police or other civic bodies or utilities.
DIG (Operations) Fayyaz Ahmed Leghari and KDA police station SHO Chaudhri Zubair appeared in response to a court notice on Tuesday. The SHO stated that the KDA police station had no power to register a first information report, which could be lodged only with the police station of the area concerned. There was no lock-up at the police station either. The DIG assured the court of all possible police assistance to the KBCA.
