KARACHI: The Supreme Court was on Monday requested by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation administrator to direct the police and Rangers to ensure shifting of oil tankers to the Zulfikarabad oil terminal as the tanker operators resisted their shifting from Shireen Jinnah Colony to the terminal.

A two-judge bench comprising Justices Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Maqbool Baqar was hearing a petition filed by Shagufta Bibi, a resident of Clifton Block-1, who had in 2012 asked then Chief Justice of Pakistan to order the shifting of the oil tankers from the locality. The woman had initially written a letter to the then CJP, who converted it into a petition.

During the past three years, the apex court time and again directed the authorities and the oil tanker owners and operators to remove their vehicles immediately from the residential area of Shireen Jinnah Colony, a neighbourhood in Clifton, but to no avail.

On Monday, the KMC administrator told the judges that the Zulfikarabad Oil Terminal was fully operational, but the oil tanker owners and operators were not ready to shift to the new terminal, spread over 150 acres.

He sought court direction to the law enforcement agencies for assisting the city administration in shifting the oil tankers away from Shireen Jinnah Colony.

The KMC also submitted a report on the matter saying that work on 32 acres had already been completed and the terminal was operational. However, he said, the oil tanker owners and operators and the petroleum ministry had not paid their respective 10 and five per cent share of the expenditure on the construction of the oil terminal.

The bench directed the provincial transport secretary to visit the oil terminal and submit a detailed report by April 2, when the court would again take up the matter.

The petitioner complained that heavy oil tankers were parked on both sides of the main road in Clifton Block-1 and its surrounding area. Besides, she said a number of auto workshops had been opened in the locality, making the lives of area residents miserable.

She submitted that the oil tanker operators had encroached upon streets in Clifton Block-1 and its adjoining areas, causing environmental hazards besides affecting residents’ privacy, as families could not move about freely due to vehicles activity.

She said oil tankers were being parked in the residential parts of the colony causing hardship to the people.

The representatives of the oil tanker owners stated that no parking place was available for them at the moment and they were compelled to park their vehicles either near the seashore or in the adjacent populated areas.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2015

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