KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday came down hard on the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) for not taking proper action against illegal and unauthorised constructions in the city.

A division bench headed by Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi said that illegal and unauthorised constructions were being carried out across the city, but the SBCA was doing nothing.

During the course of hearing a set of petitions against illegal constructions, Justice Rizvi also remarked that neither the SBCA filed comments nor its officials turned up to attend the proceedings.

Expressing serious resentment over the SBCA performance, he said the officials concerned were wasting the time of the court as there was no progress in almost every case despite court orders.

The bench directed the SBCA to take action against illegal constructions in Lyari, Landhi and other parts of the city.

It asked the SBCA director general (DG) to take action against such constructions as well as the officials who allowed the illegal activities and sought compliance reports.

The SBCA deputy director of Landhi Town filed an interim compliance report regarding demolition of illegal structure on an industrial plot in Landhi.

But expressing dissatisfaction on the report, the bench said the photographs attached with the report of nazir showed the constructions on such property had been raised without any approved building plan, and pillars and beams were visible in such pictures while it also reflected that shops had been constructed on the ground floor and construction of the first and second floors was still going on.

It directed the DG and other officials to take effective steps for demolition of illegal construction on the subject property and sought compliance report in one month.

Published in Dawn, May 7th, 2022