KARACHI, March 30: The Sindh High Court asked an anti-corruption establishment official on Thursday to appear along with record on Friday and explain the authority of law under which they had seized files of the Karachi Building Control Authority.

The order was passed by a division bench, comprising Justices Amir Hani Muslim and Maqbool Baqar, when KBCA counsel Shahid Jamil Khan informed it that the authority was unable to produce the approved design or other documents in respect of an allegedly unauthorized structure in Saddar Town as they had been taken away by the Anti-Corruption Establishment. He said hundreds of KBCA files were seized and continue to be kept by the establishment.

No receipt or copies of documents had been issued to the KBCA, the counsel alleged. The bench was hearing a petition alleging that an unauthorized structure was being raised on plot number SB-7/89, Bohri Bazaar Quarters, Saddar, and that the KBCA was doing nothing to stop it.

The court nazir has inspected the site but the KBCA deputy controller concerned was unable to furnish a copy of the approved design, claiming that the record was in the custody of the anti-corruption establishment.

The bench wondered under what authority of law the original record could be seized and kept by an investigation agency and summoned the establishment’s deputy director to appear before it on Friday morning to explain the position. KBCA building controller, deputy controller and assistant controller were also summoned to ascertain the correct position in respect of the record and the violative structure.