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KARACHI, Dec 7: The Sindh High Court vacated on Tuesday its stay order against removal of encroachments from the site of the new bus terminus near Sohrab Goth.
The terminus is planned by the city district government for all inter-city and inter-provincial buses and coaches. The existing termini and stands will all be shifted outside the city.
A suit was instituted by several people claiming to be residents in possession of a part of the project site. A stay order was granted by the high court in the suit.
Appearing for the provincial government, Additional Advocate-General M. Ahmed Pirzada submitted that the plaintiffs were not residing in the area, which was not included in the Gothabad scheme.
He said no rural area was covered by the project and the plaintiffs were illegal claimants. Their claim was based on bogus documents fabricated in connivance with revenue officials.
Justice Ataur Rehman, who had earlier passed an interim order in favour of the plaintiffs, vacated the stay but ordered that no structure in the area shall be demolished till Dec 10.
A division bench, comprising Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Amir Hani Muslim, meanwhile, directed the city district government to notify the new stands for intra-city bus traffic. Declining a stay order at the behest of a transporter, the bench, however, sought comments from the CDGK on the petition.
The petitioner submitted through Advocate Suleiman Habibullah that buses plying on various city routes were being arbitrarily diverted from several points, including the national highway and Liaquatabad.
NOTICE TO DHA: The division bench also ordered that a notice be issued to the Defence Housing Authority for Dec 13 in a contempt plea moved by a resident of Chanesar Goth.
Petitioner Ghulam Hussain submitted through Advocate Naseeruddin that the DHA officials have not removed an impugned structure and opened the 40-feet wide road from Ist North Street, DHA, to Mehmoodabad Road, which remained blocked, in violation of a court order.
BUILDER RESTRAINED: Justice Mushir Alam restrained a builder from raising any construction on plot E-142/1, Block 7, Gulshan-i-Iqbal. A plaintiff complained through Advocate Ziaul Haq Makhdoom that the plot initially measured 1,500 square yards but was first bifurcated into two plots and was now being further sub-divided without any approval and in violation of the building laws and regulations. Town houses were being built on it.
Restraining the builder, the judge asked the SHC nazir to inspect the site to ascertain the correct and factual position with the help of an approved architect and submit his report before the next date of hearing to be fixed by office.
PECHS PLOT: A notice was also ordered to be issued in a contempt plea alleging that a mosque and madressah building was being constructed on plot 82-A, Block 2, PECHS.
Advocate Zahid Khan submitted on behalf of a resident of the neighbourhood that the plot was meant for residential purposes and could not be put to another use without approval of the Karachi Building Control Authority.
The bench had passed a restraint order on Nov 23, but the construction was still in full swing and two floors of the unauthorized structure had already been raised. A KBCA deputy controller supported the petitioner resident's averments and stated that the structure was being raised in violation of the building rules and regulations.
PETITION ALLOWED: The Sindh High Court allowed on Tuesday a petition challenging the inclusion of a revenue official's name in the exit control list. Representing petitioner Khan Mohammad Mahar, former secretary, Sindh board of revenue, Advocate Raja Qureshi submitted that a foreign travel ban was clamped on him on the advice of the National Accountability Bureau in May 2000 and his name remained on the exit control list since.
The bureau, he said, recommended the ban without giving any reason. A citizen's right to freedom of movement could not be curtailed on a prosecution agency's advice, the counsel submitted.
A division bench, comprising Justices Anwar Zaheer Jamali and S. Ali Aslam Jafri, declared the ban unlawful and allowed the petition. Meanwhile, former provincial minister Munawar Ali Talpur's petition against inclusion of his name in the ECL was adjourned to December 14 by another division bench.
NAB counsel Amanullah Khan informed the bench that no accountability case was now pending against the petitioner. He was convicted in a case under the old Ehtesab Ordinance by a Sindh High Court bench but the conviction was set aside by the Supreme Court.
The petitioner's counsel, Advocate Akhtar Hussain, earlier argued that the travel ban was an infringement of the petitioner's fundamental right. There was no case pending against him and the ban was arbitrary, illegal and unconstitutional.
