KARACHI, Dec 11: The city government is bound to extend all administrative and police assistance to the Karachi Building Control Authority to enable it to discharge its functions, a division bench of the Sindh High Court observed on Thursday.

The bench, which consisted of Justices Sabihuddin Ahmed and Amir Hani Muslim, said the KBCA was an independent entity entrusted with ensuring compliance with the building laws and rules. It was not subservient to the Karachi Development Authority or the city government. Since it lacked enforcement machinery, the authority must be helped by other civic agencies to perform its functions and prevent the violation of building rules.

The observations followed a KBCA report that it was unable to comply with court orders, particularly for demolition, due to lack of assistance from the city government and the police force.

The provincial governor’s directive for transfer of the KDA-KMC police station and the merger of the city government’s anti-encroachment cell with the KBCA demolition squad have not been implemented, according to the report.

The bench, which had ordered demolition of unauthorized structures raised on three plots at Lyari, observed that the court order was sufficient for the city government to provide assistance to the KBCA and the latter should not have been required to submit details of its demolition operations on a case-to-case basis. It regretted the failure of the advocate-general or an additional AG conversant with the facts of the case and the city government officials concerned to appear despite notice.

The KBCA report stated that the police was equally lukewarm towards extending help to the authority in evicting the illegal occupants of the buildings ordered by the court to be demolished. The Lyari Town police officer wrote to the authority that the DIG (operations) had been requested for a strong contingent, including women searchers, but did not follow up his letter with a definite commitment to detail a squad on the day fixed for demolition.