KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has restrained a private builder from advertising, promoting and offering further apartments or projects on the reclaimed land as well as creating a third-party interest therein till July 21.

A single-judge bench of SHC headed by Justice Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan also issued notices to the ministry of defence, Defence Housing Authority, Cantonment Board Clifton, Creek Marina Pvt Ltd and other defendants as well as deputy attorney general for the next hearing.

A private firm, along with four individuals, filed a lawsuit in SHC stating that in terms of a settlement agreement, the plaintiff — the Creek Marina Pvt Ltd — were handed out 24 apartments in Creek Marina project in DHA Phase-VIII.

Their lawyer argued that in another lawsuit, the SHC had recently restrained Emaar Giga Karachi from advertising, promoting, offering further apartments/projects on reclaimed land and creating a third-party interest.

The counsel submitted that the case of plaintiffs was identical, as apartments handed out to them pursuant to the settlement agreement were identically placed and those apartments were not even in existence.

They asked the court to issue a similar restraining order.

In the meantime, Creek Marina Pvt Ltd has filed an intra-court appeal before a division bench of the SHC impugning the interim restraining order of the single-judge bench contending that some facts were not disclosed before the single bench and ad interim order was obtained ex-parte and sought its suspension.

However, a two-judge bench headed by Justice Salahuddin Panhwar observed that since the respondents were on notice, it was in the interest of justice to decide the matter instead of passing an ad interim order at this stage and fixed the appeal for hearing on July 19.

Published in Dawn, July 15th, 2022