KARACHI: The Supreme Court-mandated commission on water and sanitation in Sindh on Monday summoned the owner of a superstore along with Karachi police chief, directors general of Karachi Development Authority (KDA), Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) and local government secretary for using Lyari riverbed as a parking lot.

The head of the commission retired Justice Amir Hani Muslim in his order said it was noticed during the visit of the commission that private parking has been allowed in the bed of Lyari River near Gulshan-i-Iqbal.

On enquiry, it was revealed that the customers who visit Imtiaz Supermarket use this space as parking area, it added.

The commission observed it was very strange that riverbeds or beds of natural drains were being allowed for parking purposes which appeared to be an outright illegality.

Orders probe into affairs of Jamshoro’s town municipal office

It directed the SBCA DG, city police chief and local government secretary to turn up on Aug 29 and inform the commission that who has permitted the supermarket to avail such facility while the owner of the superstore was also summoned to appear with a justification that under which law he has been allowed parking facility in the bed of river instead of providing such facility within the premises of the store.

The commission also put the SBCA DG on notice for Aug 29 with direction to come up with an explanation that how the superstore building lacked parking facility.

Probe ordered against CMO, chairman

The commission also ordered the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) to take up the matter against chief municipal officer (CMO) and town committee chairman over alleged financial irregularities in the affairs of town municipal office of Jamshoro.

It also directed the provincial authorities to issue a notification of withdrawing financial powers of CMO and chairman immediately and confer the same on the Jamshoro deputy commissioner as it was done before in the case of Shikarpur DMC.

On the directive of the commission, the local government secretary conducted an inquiry and submitted the report. However, the CMO and Jamshoro chairman did not turn up on Monday.

The local government secretary conceded that the financial powers of CMO and chairman needed to be withdrawn on the account of serious irregularities in handling of public funds and the DC should be given the same powers to run the business of town committee.

The commission referred the matter to ACE after observing that prima facie there was enough material reflecting misuse and misappropriation of public funds as per the inquiry report conducted by the local government secretary.

It asked the director ACE to probe the matter in line with the inquiry report and proceed against the persons concerned in accordance with law.

More time granted for inspection of sugar mills

The commission allowed more time for the inspection of sugar mills and distilleries in the province in order to suggest installation of treatment plants for treating effluent.

On Aug 1, the commission had directed Dr Ghulam Murtaza of the Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) to inspect the mills and distilleries along with the officials of Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) and suggest the treatment plants which could be appropriate for treating the nature/volume of the effluent and submit report in three weeks.

However, Dr Murtaza turned up on Monday and requested for 10-days time and said that he could not visit all the sugar mills and distilleries.

While allowing his request, the commission directed him to come up with reports on Sept 17.

Meanwhile, the commission has issued directives to the officials of around 15 industrial units, located in Kotri industrial zone, to install treatment plants and septic tanks on the premises of their industries within four and two months respectively and warned to seal their units if they failed to implement the directive within the stipulated period.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2018