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KARACHI, March 8: The Sindh High Court ordered the attachment of an unauthorized market in Lyari on Wednesday. The SHC nazir, who inspected the market at Qasr-i-Siddiqui on plot number 2111, Nauabad, Karachi, confirmed that the owner and builder were going ahead with illegal construction. They had already built over 20 shops. The building was about 25 years’ old and new construction was being raised on the mandatory open space, the nazir said in his report to a division bench, comprising Justices Syed Zawwar Hussain Jaffery and Maqbool Baqar.
The Karachi Building Control Authority informed the bench that the construction was undertaken under the cover of a stay order, which was vacated at its request on the previous date, but the construction was still continuing. KBCA counsel Shahid Jamil Khan said the offending owner and builder were trying to create third-party interest to complicate the matter and requested the bench to pass an appropriate order to prevent them from doing so.
The bench directed the nazir to attach the violative structure and restrained the owner and the builder from dealing with the property pending the proceedings. Further proceedings were adjourned to enable the owner’s counsel, Suleiman Habibullah, to put forward his arguments. Advocate Abdul Jabbar Korai appeared for the builder.
BUILDING SEALED: The bench ordered the sealing of another violative building constructed on plot 8/3, Block 4-A, Nazimabad. The owner-builder had secured approval for a ground-plus-two-floor residential bungalow from the KBCA. He raised a four-storey structure consisting of flats for commercial use and obtained a stay order against the KBCA by misinforming the court that he had applied for regularization.
The KBCA denied that any regularization plan was under consideration. Advocate S J Khan informed the bench that the authority had sealed the unauthorized structure but the owner-building tampered with it and the KBCA official concerned got a criminal case registered against him at the Nazimabad police station.
The bench asked its nazir to inspect the building and seal it if found violative. Meanwhile, the sub-registrar of properties concerned was directed not to register any transaction in respect of the property. The Karachi Electricity Supply Corporation and the Sui Southern Gas Company were restrained from sanctioning power and gas connections.
KBCA RECORD: In the Gul Plaza, M A Jinnah Road, case, the bench allowed the KBCA official concerned to examine its original record seized by the Anti-Corruption Establishment. It observed that it could appreciate the difficulties faced by the KBCA due to absence of massive original record of buildings.
The KBCA counsel said the ACE had furnished photostat copies of the documents pertaining to the violative Gul Plaza but the copies did not serve the purpose. He said the receipts issued by the KBCA were of different colours for different purposes while the photostat copies were all in the same colour.
The bench asked the establishment to let the KBCA official concerned examine the original record of the plaza and adjourned further proceedings. A general order for transfer of the entire original record could not be made at this stage, it observed.
