KARACHI: SHC summons DCO to answer KBCA allegations
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Sept 1: The Sindh High Court has summoned the district coordination officer on Sept 8 to answer an allegation by the Karachi Building Control Authority
that the city district government was "continuously interfering in the smooth functioning of the authority to harass it".
The DCO, the KBCA submitted on oath on Wednesday, was issuing divergent directions in respect of no-objection certificates for construction projects. The affidavit was filed through Advocate Shahid Jamil Khan in a suit by the builder-developer "Oak Tower" on plot number 1, RY-10, Railway Quarters, Saddar Town.
The plaintiff claimed that he had the requisite no-objection certificate from the (defunct) Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and a KBCA-approved plan to raise a 15-storeyed structure. Yet the CDGK and the KBCA were creating hurdles and withholding necessary permission.
The KBCA in its counter-affidavit submitted that the DCO first wrote to the authority that "the authenticity of the KMC NOC was doubtful". He also asked the KBCA to "ensure that the building plan was kept in abeyance and no construction was taken up till further clearance by the City Nazim".
He again addressed a letter to say that "no construction be allowed till the matter is reviewed by the City Nazim", the authority alleged. The KBCA also asserted in its counter-affidavit that neither the city district government nor its officers had any jurisdiction over the KBCA as declared by the high court in a recent judgment.
Justice S. Ali Aslam Jaffri, who heard the suit, expressed his disappointment over the absence of the CDGK counsel and ordered that the matter be brought to the city nazim's notice. He asked the DCO to appear on Sept 8 to clarify the CDGK role in building control under the law.
KPT CASE: A division bench of the Sindh High Court suspended on Wednesday the operation of an attachment notice served on a container terminal builder by the excise and taxation department for an alleged default by the Karachi Port Trust.
Appearing for the petitioner concern, the Karachi International Container Terminal, Advocate Aziz A. Shaikh argued that it was not a tenant but an occupier of berths engaged in constructing a modernized container terminal at the West Wharf under a 20-year agreement signed with the KPT on the basis of "build, operate and transfer".
Section 14 of the Property Act, the lawyer submitted, could be invoked by the taxation authorities only against tenants of the KPT property. The occupiers of the property were not liable to pay the levy.
A tenant was liable to deposit the rent dues to the taxation department if the latter had failed to recover the tax through the recovery procedure prescribed under Section 16 of the Property Act. The rent would continue to be paid to the department instead of the landlord till the default amount was fully recovered.
The bench, which consisted of Justices Shabbir Ahmed and M. Mujibullah Siddiqui, directed that notices be issued to the advocate-general and the excise and taxation director-general for Sept 16. In the meantime, the attachment notice shall remain suspended.
