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KARACHI, Dec 7: The Sindh High Court stayed on Wednesday construction work on a seven-storeyed building near the City Courts and ordered that a stability study be carried out by a qualified architect in respect of it.
A non-governmental organization submitted through Advocate Abdul Jabbar Korai that an unscrupulous builder and developer had raised a dangerous multi-storeyed structure adjacent to Tahir Plaza in Pan Mandi without sanction and in violation of the rules and approved plan.
The owner of the plot (No WO-8/3), the petitioner said, had been allowed to construct a ground-plus-four-floor building, but he had already built two additional floors without any approval in a congested area plagued by traffic jams and water and sewerage problems. No action had so far been taken by the KBCA, he alleged.
A division bench, comprising Justices Mushir Alam and Amir Hani Muslim, passed a restraint order and issued notices to the builder and the Karachi Building Control Authority. The SHC nazir was asked to name an architect to carry out a stability report in the meanwhile, the bench ordered.
The bench also issued notices to the KBCA, the city district government and a steelworks owner in a petition alleging that that a steel workshop was being operated in a purely residential area. The owner of a plot in Lawrence Quarters, Ghanchipara, old Haji Camp, the petitioner said, had installed heavy machinery on the premises and was carrying out steel business with impunity in an exclusively residential area.
TCP RESTRAINED: Justice Gulzar Ahmed, meanwhile, restrained the Trading Corporation of Pakistan from proceeding further for award of a urea supply contract.
An American company submitted through its representative, Humayun Akhtar Butt, that it participated in bids invited by the TCP for supply of 75000 tonnes of urea and offered a maximum rate of $ 249 per ton. It was first verbally told of the rejection of its bid and subsequently informed that it failed to fulfil four requirements. It said the conditions were not mentioned in the original invitation.
The plaintiff alleged that a contract for supply of 300,000 tonnes of urea was later awarded to another party for supplying the fertilizer at the rate of $ 270 per ton. The transaction lacked transparency and was tainted with favouritism, the plaintiff stated.
The TCP denied the allegations categorically in its counter-affidavit and the court adjourned the case to Dec 14 for further hearing. The parties were asked to maintain status quo in the meantime.
AQUITTAL REVERSED: A division bench, comprising Justices Mohammad Afzal Soomro and Rehmat Hussain Jafri, sentenced an acquitted murder accused, Allah Warayo, to life imprisonment and also convicted co-accused Abdul Karim of destroying the evidence by disposing of the victim’s body.
The two were booked by police for killing Khan Mohammad alias Khano at the Dhabeji railway station on Sept 10, 1993, with four others. They were alleged by Khano’s complainant uncle to have thrown his body into bushes, where it perished.
An additional sessions judge of Malir acquitted all the accused for lack of evidence and the complainant challenged the acquittal order in the high court. Appearing for the respondent state, Assistant Advocate-General Habib Ahmed submitted that there was sufficient evidence to connect the two main accused, Allah Warayo and Abdul Karim, to the offence.
The appellate bench jailed Warayo for life under Section 302 (culpable homicide) of the Pakistan Penal Code and sentenced Karim to three years under Section 201 of the PPC for destroying evidence. The appeal against the acquittal of four other accused was dismissed. Warayo was taken to jail while Karim remained free as he had already served jail for over that period as an under-trial prisoner. All the accused were granted bail after over three years of their arrest in the case.
