KARACHI, April 26: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday gave all the authorities concerned three months to eliminate all vehicles emitting smoke and creating noise from the city roads. All such vehicles are to be immediately impounded and action is to be taken against their owners and drivers.

The order was passed by a division bench, comprising Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Gulzar Ahmed, in a petition moved by a lawyer, who said the faulty vehicles were not only a traffic nuisance but a health hazard causing multifarious ailments.

The court also ordered that no vehicle without a number plate should be allowed to ply. The various officials involved would submit compliance reports after the expiry of three months when the petition would again come up for hearing, it said.

The DIG (traffic), the director of excise and taxation, a functionary of the Environmental Protection Agency, motor vehicle examiner, a city district government executive officer, a transport department representative and officials of other agencies appeared in the court in response to the court notices.

Advocate Islam Hussain referred in his petition to a Supreme Court direction to the provincial chief secretaries in a suo motu environmental case and said the Punjab government has banned double stroke auto rickshaws in compliance. He said that an identical action should be taken in the province of Sindh to start with, though smoke-emitting buses and rashly-driven tankers and vans as they posed greater threat. The various governments had been making promises and giving undertakings in this regard from time to time but no tangible relief from pollution was visible.

The bench observed on Wednesday that the legal framework was available and faulty vehicles were banned under the Motor Vehicles Ordinance and other statutes but they lacked enforcement. The authorities concerned, it directed, should henceforth act against the offensive vehicles immediately.

Builder restrained: A Sindh High Court division bench restrained a builder from raising further construction on a plot in Clifton Cantonment on Wednesday.

The petitioner, Shelter Homes Welfare Society, submitted through Abdul Jabbar Korai that the builder was raising a commercial complex on a residential plot (number A-57/1 and 57/2) in Delhi Colony, Bazaar Area, Clifton Cantonment. He had an approved plan for a ground-plus-one-floor bungalow but was constructing shops and apartments without any sanction. He has already built three floors in addition to the ground floor and was about to embark on the construction of two more floors.

The SHC nazir inspected the site in pursuance of a court order and confirmed the petitioner’s allegation. The bench restrained the builder and observed that the cantonment board was at liberty to demolish the structure and proceed against the builder in accordance with the law and rules.

Meanwhile, another bench, comprising Justices Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Mohammad Athar Saeed, asked the SHC nazir to inspect Jilani Centre on plot number 7/100 near Merewether Tower, Saddar Town. A non-governmental organization, Karachi Helpline Organization, complained that the centre’s developer was building shops and godowns in the space earmarked for car parking. The shops and godowns would not be eligible for regularization under the law even on payment of fine and an injunction should be granted before the completion of the project.

The bench asked the nazir to visit the site and submit his report by May 3 when the petition would again come up for hearing.