KARACHI: SC allows KBCA to demolish unauthorised structure
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, April 16: The Supreme Court allowed the Karachi Building Control Authority on Monday to demolish an unauthorised structure if it can not be regularised under the rules.
The KBCA had sealed Ideal Arcade built on a 4,444-square-yard plot (No FL-8, Block A) in Sector 15-C of KDA Scheme 33, Super Highway. The builder was found to have raised construction on the compulsory open space and built 17 shops in addition to the number sanctioned by the building plan approved by the KBCA. He hurriedly moved a regularisation plan and while it was pending, obtained a stay order from the Sindh High Court.
The regularisation plan was rejected by the KBCA and the stay order was vacated by the high court.
The builder approached the Supreme Court against the high court order and an SC bench, while issuing a notice to the authority for April 16, granted him a status quo order. The petition for leave to appeal came up before an SC bench comprising Justice Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi and Justice Ghulam Rabbani at the court’s Karachi registry on Monday.
The builder’s counsel argued that an appeal against the rejection of the regularisation plan had been moved and the authority be restrained from taking any action against the project pending a decision. The KBCA counsel, Shahid Jamil Khan, pressed for disposal of the petition for leave to appeal saying that the builder wanted to create third party interests under the cover of interim injunctions and court proceedings. It would be more difficult for the KBCA to demolish the unauthorised structure if purchasers bought the shops and apartments in the project. The regularisation application, the counsel said, had been rejected and appeal against the rejection would also be decided within two weeks.
The bench gave the KBCA three months to decide the appeal and demolish the unauthorised structure if regularisation was not permissible under the rules.
