KARACHI, Aug 11: The Karachi Building Control Authority has challenged the amalgamation of four plots of over 1000 square feet each facing different roads and a division bench of the Sindh High Court adjourned the hearing of a contempt case against it to Aug 16.

A builder has sought contempt proceedings against the KBCA and its chief for not complying with a court order of March requiring the authority to approve his building plan without waiting for a no-objection certificate from the city district government for conversion of the premises from residential to commercial. All four plots, which are adjacent but are situated on different roads, were originally residential and have one-unit bungalows constructed on them. But the provincial government declared all plots and buildings commercial on six roads, including Tariq Road and Sharea Faisal.

The city district government questions wholesale commercialization of entire neighborhoods and says even if a road has been commercialized by a 1998 provincial government order, it would decide the matter on case-to-case basis and would recover commercialization charge or fee in accordance with its rules. The KBCA does not sanction building plans for plots on commercialized roads without a no-objection certificate. An SHC division bench, comprising Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Maqbool Baqar, however, ruled in March that a no-objection certificate in respect of properties situated on the commercialized roads was not necessary and that the KBCA should proceed with the approval of building plan for a commercial complex proposed to be built by the petitioner on Sharea Faisal and Tipu Sultan Road.

The petitioner builder, who has purchased four bungalows on the commercialized roads, approached the high court in July complaining that his construction design was still pending and that the KBCA had not complied with the court direction. The authority chief and its officials concerned should, therefore, be tried for contempt. CDGK counsel Manzoor Ahmed, who had contested the main petition in March, informed the bench that the direction has already been challenged in the Supreme Court, which has granted leave to appeal. An application for urgent hearing has been moved and it would be in the fitness of things if the bench awaited the outcome. His request was rejected by Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Ali Sain Dino Metlo, who constitute the bench seized of the contempt matter.

KBCA counsel Shahid Jamil Khan submitted that the petitioner builder submitted a building plan in April. The plan, which envisaged construction of a basement, ground floor and five storeys, was not found in accordance with the rules and regulations and the authority sent its objections to the applicant. While the matter was being processed, the builder submitted another plan consisting of as many as 10 storeys in addition to the basement and ground floor.

The counsel said the amalgamation of four plots, Plot 1 of Sharea Faisal, Plot 1A on Tipu Sultan Road, and Plots 2 and five on a 40-feet-wide street was not permissible under the Karachi Building and Town Planning Rules. It was sanctioned in 1998 by the then competent authority in violation of rules. The incumbent chief controller of buildings has ordered an inquiry into the matter.