KARACHI: The Supreme Court on Friday appointed a court official as commissioner for the inspection of the newly-inaugurated Zulfikarabad oil tankers’ parking terminal to verify the claim of the authorities for provision of all required facilities.

Headed by Justice Mushir Alam, the three-member bench of the apex court hearing a suo motu case about the parking of oil tankers on the streets of Shireen Jinnah Colony in Clifton also directed the commissioner to submit the inspection report till Aug 3.

At the outset of the hearing, the provincial home secretary through a report informed the bench that all the required facilities as per court orders had been provided at the terminal and the parking facility for the large fuel-carrying vehicles was formally inaugurated by the Karachi mayor on July 27.

He said around 50 per cent of the work had been completed and at present around 1,400 oil tankers could be parked at the Zulfikarabad terminal.

However, a lawyer representing shopkeepers claimed that the work on the new terminal had not been completed so far and the required facilities had also not been provided. Therefore, he said, the shopkeepers would not shift to the terminal until the construction and other works were completed at the parking facility.

This led the judges to express their displeasure over the shopkeepers’ attitude and Justice Maqbool Baqar, a member of the bench, remarked that such behaviour would not be tolerated. He told the lawyer that the shopkeepers should not threaten to paralyse the system.

The members of the SC bench observed that since the authorities were providing required facilities, all relevant [stakeholders] would have to shift to the new terminal.

The judges appointed a court officer as commissioner, directing him to visit the Zulfikarabad oil tankers’ terminal, spread over 150 acres on Hub River Road in Mochko, to confirm the factual position regarding the provision of facilities.

Cinema management ordered to vacate Markaz-i-Islami

The same bench on Friday directed the management of a cinema house and private contractor to vacate the premises of the Markaz-i-Islami, known as Islamic Culture Centre, which was converted into a cinema, and hand over its possession back to the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC).

The three-member bench issued these directives after the cinema management and contractor informed the apex court that they were withdrawing their contract with the KMC.

At a previous hearing, the court had directed the KMC to restore Markaz-i-Islami’s portion where a cinema had been set up to its original position. The KMC commissioner filed a compliance report during Friday’s proceedings.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2017