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KARACHI, Sept 27: The Sindh High Court asked the Karachi Building Control Authority to demolish the violative parts of a commercial building on Tariq Road and issued a bailable warrant for the arrest of its owner to ensure his presence on the next date.
A contempt application was moved by the KBCA against Asif Shaikh, builder of Shaikh Arcade, Tariq Road, for building shops in corridors and in the basement meant for car parking in violation of a high court restraint order.
The authority said it had approved a construction plan for a ground-plus-four-floor plaza but the basement was exclusively intended for car parking, particularly because the main Tariq Road was already short of parking space. The corridors were also to be provided on all floors.
The court appointed Additional Advocate-General M. Ahmed Pirzada as commissioner for inspecting the site. The law officer visited the site and confirmed in his report the KBCA allegation that the builder had indulged in gross violation by cordoning off the site to bar the authority officials in contravention of the restraint order. The shops earlier razed by the KBCA had been rebuilt, he said.
A division bench, comprising Justices Mushir Alam and Syed Zawwar Hussain Jaffery, directed the authority to demolish the violative structures and issued a bailable warrant against the builder, who failed to appear despite notice, to ensure his attendance on the next date, which would be fixed by office.
ATTACHMENT: The bench, meanwhile, asked the SHC nazir to execute the court order for attachment of the property situated on plot number GK-3/3, Ghulam Husain Quarters, Kharadar, Karachi.
A petition moved by a non-governmental organization through Advocate Abdul Jabbar Korai alleged that construction on the plot had been raised in contravention of the approved plan and the builder had covered the space required to be left open. The building was partly demolished but the developer rebuilt the violative parts.
REPORT SOUGHT: Justice Gulzar Ahmed, meanwhile, asked the SHC nazir to inspect a site in Block 3, KDA Scheme 5, Clifton, and submit a report within seven days.
Dr Anwar Ye Bin Ju submitted in an application moved through Advocate Khwaja Naveed Ahmed that he was a Chinese physiotherapist and acupuncturist granted Pakistani citizenship by (the late) president Ziaul Haq. He was allotted a 3000-square-yard plot bearing number ST-17 in Block 3 of KDA Scheme 5 to construct a hospital.
The hospital was being raised when its boundary wall and other portions were demolished by the Karachi Development Authority, since merged into the city district government, in 1989.
The applicant said he instituted a suit and was granted status quo by the high court in 2001. The court also restrained the respondents from creating third party interest in the property. Nevertheless, a boundary wall was being built on ‘the plaintiff’s plot’ and the CDGK intended to dispose it of.
Advocate Manzoor Ahmed contested the application on behalf of the city district government and denied the plaintiff’s averments in a counter-affidavit. He said the CDGK was proceeding strictly in accordance with the law and there was no violation of any court order on its part.
Asking the nazir to inspect the site, Justice Ahmed adjourned the hearing to October 10.
