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KARACHI, June 23: The Sindh High Court reserved its judgment on Monday on a writ petition, questioning the validity of an ordinance, promulgated last year, to regularize building rules violations on payment of fines, under certain conditions.
Shehri, a non-governmental organization, and other petitioners, said the Sindh Regulation and Control (Use of Plots and Construction of Buildings) Ordinance, 2000, condoned violations of law and rules by unscrupulous builders at the cost of law-abiding citizens. It also impinged on the citizens’ right to life, which included quality of life and the right to enjoy property, the petitioners said, blaming the ordinance for encouraging degradation of environment.
Contesting the petition, Additional Advocate-General, Suleiman Habibullah, argued that the ordinance had already lapsed and the petition had lost relevance. Nevertheless, the ordinance provided for regularization of longstanding violations under stringent conditions. Its provisions ensured that no regularization resulted in environmental degradation, the AAG argued, claiming instead of rewarding law breakers, it imposed heavy fines on them. The defunct ordinance took care of the concerns raised by the petitioners, he said.
The law officer said no resident or property owner had come out with a complaint that he had been adversely affected by the promulgation or operation of the law. Those who got their deviations regularized under it, were not before the court to defend themselves, he said. An NGO dealing with matters relating to the real estate could not be registered under the Societies Act, he said, while arguing that the petitioners were not an aggrieved party and their petition was liable to be dismissed on this short ground.
The bench, which consisted of Justices Sabihuddin Ahmed and S. Ali Aslam Jafri, reserved its order after hearing the arguments.
PETITION DISPOSED OF: A division bench of the Sindh High Court disposed of a writ petition against preventive detention, when it was informed that the detainee had already been released.
Additional Advocate-General, Qazi Khalid Ali, submitted before the bench that the detention of Sajid Ahmed alias Tanki, under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance, came to an end when he was released on June 21. He was required in a number of cases and he (AAG) did not know whether he had been arrested by police in any of them.
The detainee’s counsel, Advocate Rizwan H Nadeem, had earlier alleged that Sajid Tanki, who was an office-holder of the PML (Q), Karachi, had been taken into custody to prevent him from taking part in the June 23 byelection campaign.
The bench, comprising Chief Justice Saiyid Saeed Ashhad and Justice Mushir Alam, disposed of the petition in terms of the AAG’s submissions.
