KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday directed the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) and others to file details of residential properties converted into commercial ones following an amendment to building rules, which now stands repealed.

The SBCA had issued a notification allowing commercial use of residential properties in the city on March 13 and thereafter, several identical petitions were filed in the SHC impugning the notification, which introduced various controversial changes in the Karachi Building and Town Planning Regulations.

The authority had withdrawn the notification on May 13 after facing severe criticism and legal challenges and thereafter, such petitions were disposed of.

However, one of the petitioners insisted that his petition had not become infructuous since the impugned notification was issued in violation of the apex court’s orders and it was also not repealed from the date it was issued but from May 13, apparently to benefit some influential persons, including to unseal a restaurant owned by a political figure of the province.

When the matter came up for hearing before a two-judge bench headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro on Monday, the petitioner argued that the notification in question was violative of the judgements of the Supreme Court about commercialisation in residential areas of the city and that residential properties were commercialised under the garb of such notification.

The counsel for the SBCA contended that the impugned notification had been repealed, but he did not know the date.

After hearing both sides, the bench in it order said: “Learned counsel for SBCA as well as AAG [assistant advocate general] with coordination of Sindh Master Plan Authority are required to submit details of the properties which under the garb of said notification have been commercialized”.

“If the claim of the above-said authorities is that no property was commercialized, the heads of these departments shall file their personal affidavits in support of it”, it added The bench adjourned the hearing till Nov 10.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2025