KARACHI, Sept 9: The Sindh High Court asked its nazir on Friday to inspect a commercial complex in Jauhar Society and restrained the builder from raising any construction over and above the second floor or creating third party interest in the meanwhile.

Petitioner owners residing in two adjacent bungalows submitted through Advocate Iqbal Haider that the basement-plus-seven-floor Sana Heights, being built on plot number 44/A of the residential neighbourhood, was flagrantly violative of all the laws, rules and town planning regulations. A 550-square-yard portion numbered 44/A-1 was carved out of the 2000-square-yard plot and commercialized surreptitiously in contravention of the law. The land was leased out to the society by the federal ministry works and housing.

The plot, the petitioners said, was so oddly sub-divided that the commercial segment (44/A-1) occupied almost the entire frontage, leaving only a 20-foot wide passage to the 1444.45-square-yard residential plot (44/A) in the backyard. However, digging for construction was done on the whole undivided plot and the eight-storey structure was being constructed hastily.

The permission to sub-divide the plot, the petitioners said, was subject to conditions contained in the zoning regulations and the approval of the federal housing ministry. Compulsory open space was to be left uncovered. The Karachi Development Authority, since merged into the city district government, had sanctioned only a ground-plus-two-floor structure even on the commercialized portion, they added.

A division bench, comprising Justices Mushir Alam and S. Zawwar Hussain Jaffery, asked the nazir/deputy nazir to inspect the site to ascertain the factual position in the presence of the representatives of the petitioners, the respondent builders, the city district government, the Karachi Building Control Authority and M A Jauhar Co-operative Housing Society. The hearing was adjourned to Sept 21.