KARACHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the officials concerned to auction the land, on which once Nasla Tower was raised, after completing the normal practice in order to compensate the affectees.

The 15-storey commercial-cum-residential building on Sharea Faisal was demolished on the directives of a bench headed by the then chief justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed for having been partially built on a portion of land meant for the service road.

When a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa took up the matter for hearing, it was informed by some of the victims that despite the apex court order passed in June 2021 about compensation, the same had not been complied with.

The advocate general of Sindh informed the bench that as per earlier orders of the apex court, after the demolition of the tower, the official assignee of the Sindh High Court had attached a portion of the allotted plot measuring 780 square yards in order to compensate the affected residents as the builder had passed away.

The bench ordered the official assignee about auction of the land as per normal practice and also directed the Sindhi Muslim Cooperative Housing Society as well as the owners of demolished tower to provide details about ownership of the plot to the official assignee as well as other requisite documents within one week.

The court also directed the official assignee to file a report after completion of the auction process about whether the amount was sufficient to compensate the victims.

Initially, the apex court had ordered the demolition of the building in June 2021 for partly encroaching upon around 240 square yards of land meant for a service road and in September 2021 the review petition of the builder was also turned down.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2024