KARACHI, Feb 16: The Sindh High Court has directed the Karachi Building Control Authority on Friday to seal unoccupied apartments of an unauthorised building in Garden East and take action against its builder, architect and contractor under intimation to the court within four weeks.
The building, Zohra Classic, has been raised on plot GRE-327, which was meant for a ground-plus-one-floor single unit bungalow. The builder instead raised a commercial apartment complex of ground plus five floors in addition to a basement in 1995. Certain residents of the neighborhood moved a petition and a contempt application. A division bench comprising Justices Mushir Alam and Mohammad Afzal Soomro summoned the chief controller of buildings (CCOB) and five town controllers to explain how such a flagrant violation of building regulations remained unchecked.
The KBCA counsel, Shahid Jamil Khan, claimed that notices had been issued to the officials responsible for inaction and connivance. They have submitted their replies and further proceedings were in progress. Notices were issued to the offending builder but there was no assistance given by the civil and municipal administration to take coercive action against him. The new CCOB, who is on leave, has created vigilance and legal cells in the authority, to keep an eye on building rules violations and ensure compliance with court orders. These cells would supervise the existing machinery.
Advocate Naeemur Rehman submitted on behalf of the petitioners that the KBCA was equally responsible for unauthorised structures and building rules violations. In fact, its officials connive in the violations for unlawful gain and allow the buildings to be completed. Not all the flats in the unauthoriszed building were occupied but the authority was taking no action, he said.
The bench asked the KBCA to seal empty flats and take action against the offending builder, architect, contractor and engineer within four weeks.
NFL SALE: A division bench of the Sindh High Court issued notices to the auction purchaser and creditors of a Schon Group concern in an application seeking court recognition of an agreement between the group and the National Accountability Bureau.
The concern, National Fibres Limited (NFL), was sold for Rs452 million through a public auction under a court order. The sale proceeds were invested by the SHC official assignee in his capacity as receiver. Several financial institutions had filed recovery suits and obtained decrees in their favour. While the creditors’ claims were processed in execution proceedings, the NFL management obtained an order in its appeal, restraining the receiver from making any disbursement. The new application was moved in the pending appeal.
As the appeal and the application came up for hearing before a division bench comprising Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Ali Sain Dino Metlo, Advocates Yawar Farooqui and Asim Mansoor Khan submitted on behalf of PICL, NIB Bank, Orix Leasing and other creditors that the agreement was ‘highly objectionable’. They contended that there has been material suppression as the agreement ‘does not disclose all the liabilities of the company’. The claimants before the court, have been excluded from notice. The agreement has not been filed in execution proceedings, they said.
The counsel maintained that the NAB authorities went to Dubai and unilaterally entered into the agreement with the Schon Group chief without any inquiry or notice, though it adversely affected the interests of third parties. The agreement, they said, should be judicially scrutinised and placed before the company judge executing decrees against the Schon Group concern.
The bench deferred further consideration of the application and decided to hear all the parties concerned in the second week of March.
