KARACHI: The Supreme Court-mandated commission on water and sanitation in Sindh on Monday expressed serious concerns over the construction of commercial plazas on industrial plots in SITE and observed that prima facie it was against the terms and defeated the very purpose of creating industrial zones.

The commission headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Amir Hani Muslim said that apparently this was not permissible for multifarious reasons as commercial permission granted by SITE had burdened the civic agencies since there was no satisfactory mechanism within many industrial zones, including SITE, for sewerage and municipal disposal.

“The spirit of the commercial activity is being misinterpreted here. Any commercial activity, if at all, should have been limited to that particular industry only in the shape of a fair-price shop,” it added.

An additional advocate general sought time to file a report in this regard while the industries secretary said that SITE was regulated by the board under the companies law and the plots in SITE were allotted by the board through the managing director, a nominee of the provincial government.

The additional advocate general added that one per cent of the entire area has to be allotted for commercial purposes under the Karachi Building & Town Planning Regulations 2002. However, the law officer did not provide the details of plots allotted by SITE for commercial purposes.

The commission said it has compelled the industrialists to install treatment plants and septic tanks as the entire industrial effluent was being discharged openly in the drains of SITE against the terms of laws on which the industrial plots have been allotted. Eventually, the effluent discharged in the sea without any treatment damaging marine life, it said and added that the situation was very alarming and permission of such nature will increase multitude of problems if not checked at this point of time.

The commission put a provincial law officer on notice for Oct 1 as well as a lawyer to assist the commission on these issues.

MPA warned

The commission warned the MPA of Sindh Assembly Dr Mahesh Kumar Malani not to intervene in its domain about suggesting the locations for reinstallation of RO plants in Tharparkar.

It said that a list has been provided to it which was apparently issued by the MPA suggesting change of locations of RO plants.

The commission barred the deputy commissioner concerned and Pak Oasis from acting upon the list in question since it said that Dr Malani has no business to identify the locations which was the domain of the commission.

It warned the MPA to avoid intervening in the work of commission in future failing which he will be exposed to the consequences whereas the commission directed the project director to ensure that the locations should not be utilised and or changed to extend political favour.

SBCA told to act

The commission directed the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) to initiate departmental proceedings against all those officers who were prima facie found guilty of patronising violations of serious nature which were not compoundable and if after enquiry they were found guilty they will be proceeded against in terms of their service laws by awarded penalties depending on the gravity of the charge.

It also asked the SBCA chief to compete this exercise within six weeks. Earlier, the commission expressed dissatisfaction over a report filed by the DG about the actions taken against such officials. The report said that some of the officers have been transferred and a number of others have been placed under suspension.

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2018