KARACHI, March 8: The Sindh High Court issued notices to the city district government and other respondents on Thursday in a writ petition seeking environmental facelift of Karachi.
The petition says that the city has long suffered environmental degradation due to encroachments, violation of building rules, plying of smoke-emitting vehicles, congestion on roads, absence of parking space, garbage dumping and disproportionate increase in population. If the pollution remains unchecked, most parts of the city will become unlivable.
The situation has been aggravated by wholesale commercialisation of 22 major roads in the heart of the city without taking any measures to improve the infrastructure to cope with the increased demand on the supply of water and utilities, garbage disposal, sewerage and traffic control.
In most business centres, says the petition filed by Advocate Islam Hussain on behalf of a non-governmental organisation, space reserved for parking has been converted into shops and godowns. Pavements and arcades along shopping centres have been encroached upon by shopkeepers, car showrooms, workshops, stalls, pushcarts and other unauthorised vendors.
Vehicles are parked even in ‘no-parking zones’ on busy commercial streets. To improve the environment and ease congestion, the petition says, all encroachments on pavements, arcades and parking spaces be removed and green belts developed along commercial streets.
A railway track be laid along the under-construction Lyari Expressway from Keamari to Taiser Town. The more congested areas be declared no-parking zones. The damaged roads be repaired without delay.
The petition came up before a division bench comprising Justices Mushir Alam and Mrs Yasmeen Abbasy and the bench issued notices to the CDGK, Karachi Building Control Authority, Pakistan Railways, traffic police, Pakistan Rangers, cantonment boards and the provincial police.
TOXIC WASTE: Another division bench comprising Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Ali Sain Dino Metlo adjourned the hearing of a petition filed by the fathers of the children killed or injured by toxic waste in the Sindh Industrial and Trading Estate. M/s Berger Paints, who allegedly dumped their waste on an empty plot without warning, pleaded innocent on Thursday. They claimed that they had their own waste treatment arrangement and the facility has been contracted out to a firm represented on the environment board.
The petitioners prayed that waste dumping be prohibited and the industrial concerns asked to submit their monthly environmental reports as required by the National Environmental Quality Standards (Self Monitoring and Reporting by Industries) Rules, 2001. They also sought strict implementation of the environmental laws by the federal and provincial agencies to prevent mishaps in the future.
MUNICIPAL OFFICE: Justice Maqbool Baqar, meanwhile, asked the city district government to file a rejoinder to the suit instituted by a claimant of the Gulshan-i-Iqbal Town Committee premises near the Civic Centre.
The CDGK counsel, Manzoor Ahmed, contended that the 3,000 square yards plot and all construction raised thereon were part of the Gulshan municipal office. The premises, however, were sealed by the SHC nazir in pursuance of a court order. The order was passed without hearing the defendant town committee or the CDGK. The counsel said the town administration machinery and vehicles are housed in the premises.
