HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Sindh High Court, Hyderabad circuit, on Wednesday directed the Hyderabad Develop­ment Authority (HDA) and the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) to file their comments along with rules/regulations and copy of the master plan of Hyder­abad regarding projects alle­g­edly being constructed/raised in flood zone area and katcha land.

The bench comprising Justice Aziz ur Rehman and Justice Mohammad Faisal Kamal Alam also ordered that some senior officers of the SBCA and HDA, who were well conversant with facts of the case, should appear before court on Jan 3 along with relevant record.

The court noted that respondents had not filed their comments so far and that’s why the matter was adjourned with directives to respondents to appear in court with comments.

The order was passed on a constitutional petition filed by Jan Mohammad Junejo and Aftab Ahmed Chand, who were represented by advocate Suleman Un­nar, in a public interest litigation. Zaheeruddin Sahito appea­r­ed for the SBCA.

Officers of the SBCA, DHA, irrigation, revenue, defunct Hyder­abad Municipal Corporation, private builders and developers are cited as respondents.

The petition was filed in 2011 when a different local government system was working in Sindh.

The petitioners had said that Pakistan had faced ‘super floods’ in 2010, causing irreparable losses to people in Sindh and forcing them to shift to safer places.

According to their petition, both petitioners had visited river Indus embankments and were astonished to see that the area falling between Indus and protective bund, which is called katcha area, in Latifabad and Qasimabad talukas was flooded.

They said that it was in spite of the fact that no breach had occurred in main dyke, but floodwater crossed the river bund. They said that they witnessed incomplete structure of multistorey buildings, plazas and residential colonies.

They maintained that offices of most of these plazas and buildings were under floodwater that prompted petitioners to check how government departments concerned had granted them permissions and issued no objection certificates (NOCs) to build such projects in flood zone.

The petitioners named 21 projects in the petition which according to petitioners were located in the flood zone. Builders and developers are receiving millions from clients in the projects being raised on the basis of invalid NOCs and approvals.

They disclosed that officers of departments concerned gave them false hopes as far as provision of approval and NOCs to them was concerned and then the same was eventually denied. According to them, respondent officers are responsible to evaluate any residential-cum-commercial project or housing scheme in the light of title documents, authority, right and technical viability before granting NOCs.

The petitioners stated that revenue officers failed to discharge their responsibilities while submitting reports to respondents director town planning and director planning and development control of HDA.

They said that respondents were under obligation to bring facts on record and inform officers concerned about nature of land as same was situated between Indus River and protective bund on the river’s left bank. But they suppressed these facts and covered all illegalities of builder mafia in collusion with HDA authorities.

They said that House Building Finance Company Limited (HBFCL) was “illegally” processing financing regarding various units. Similarly, they said, sub registrars, who document any property, were not performing their duties in these cases and had processed requests.

They said that the irrigation department did not take timely notice of such illegal construction in flood zone by builder mafia. They have taken monetary benefits in these cases to keep quiet so that builders kept continuing their work.

They mentioned one case of an individual who submitted an application to executive engineer Phulelli Canal division regarding his land located close to protective bund and permission was granted. Similar things happened in other projects located in flood zone where authorities granted NOCs to builders.

They asked the court to direct respondents to submit detailed reports about construction of various projects in flood zone and in katcha area on left bank of the Indus in taluka Qasimabad.

They said that a commission might be appointed to ascertain role of various government functionaries to fix responsibility as to who was involved in granting NOCs.

They said that respondents should be restrained permanently from granting NOCs and permission to builder mafia for raising construction of projects in flood zone and katcha area located in Qasimabad and Latifabad talukas.

Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2018