KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday directed the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) to convene a meeting of technical experts and stakeholders on Oct 25 for their input and suggestions in order to permanently resolve the drainage issues in the upscale neighbourhood of the city.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi said the experts proposed by the petitioners must also attend the meeting and the lawyers for the petitioners should intimate the names of such team of experts at least 10 days before the meeting.

The bench passed such directives during the hearing of two petitions filed against the sewerage infrastructure that caused flooding during the torrential rains in the areas of DHA and Cantonment Board Clifton (CBC) in 2020.

On the previous hearing, the bench had directed the DHA to call the meetings of all stakeholders within seven working days and submit their minutes.

At the outset of hearing on Monday, the lawyers for the DHA argued that in the light of the last order, they had sent several letters to the counsel for the petitioners to obtain a date for convening a meeting.

However, a lawyer for one of the petitioners contended that he had not received any of the letters though a team of engineers as proposed by him was ready to meet the officials of the DHA and CBC.

The bench in its order said: “Be that as it may, let the meeting in terms of the order passed in these petitions on 14.09.2022 on 25.10.2022 at 3:00pm at office of the DHA”.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2022