KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday restricted the registration of sale deed, lease deed or sub-lease of any property across the province unless its completion plan was issued by the Sindh Building Control Authority in respect of the construction.

A two-judge bench comprising Justices Nadeem Akhtar and Fahim Siddiqui gave the ruling while hearing a set of constitutional petitions, including of a resident of apartments sub-leased by three sub-registrars in violation of the building control laws.

One of the petitioners Saira Mohammad Abdullah, resident of a flat on plot No. 684, new No. 1165, in Mehmoodabad, said that the apartment was sub-leased in her name.

She said the SBCA served her with a notice asking her to vacate the flat within three days.

Impleading the SBCA deputy director, Jamshed Town, sub-registrar of Jamshed Town, and builders of the flat Mohammad Tahir and Sami Ahmed as respondents, the petitioner asked the court to restrain the SBCA from taking any action against her.

She also requested the court to direct the respondents to withdraw the notice ordering her to vacate her flat.

Karachi’s District Registrar Ghulam Abbas appeared and filed a detailed report that was taken on court’s record.

It was stated in the report that the three registrars had registered sub-leases in respect of the subject property in violation of Section 18-G of the SBCA Ordinance, 1979.

The report said that the three sub-registrars — Imdad Ali Qureshi, Zohaib Nazar Gopang and Aftab Ahmed — had been placed under suspension.

The district registrar submitted that concrete measures were now being taken by the Board of Revenue (BoR) to ensure that no such illegal act was committed in future by any sub-registrar in Karachi.

He said that circulars had been issued from time to time directing all sub-registrars to comply with the mandatory requirements under the law at the time of registration of documents.

Besides, the district registrar said that the SHC’s earlier order directing him to display such notices on notice boards at prominent places across the city was also complied with.

He also undertook to ensure that no sale deed, lease deed and/or sub-lease would be registered by any sub-registrar in Karachi without presenting of the completion plan in terms of Section 18-G of the SBCA Ordinance.

The three sub-registrars also appeared before the judges as the court had earlier issued bailable warrants for their arrest. The bench ordered that the warrants against them stood discharged.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2017