KARACHI, Dec 1: The Sindh High Court admitted on Friday an appeal against the construction of a three-storey commercial complex in place of Star Cinema without car parking in one of the most congested areas of the city.

The appeal, moved by the Karachi Building Control Authority, stated that car parking space was mandatory as consistently held by the SHC and the Supreme Court. The new complex, built on the 818-square-feet cinema plot on Aga Khan Road adjoining the electronics market in Saddar, has 32 shops and two floors for offices. It is situated on a roundabout in front of under-construction Ama Tower. The KBCA, which had sanctioned the plan, said in its appeal against a single judge’s order decreeing the owner-builder’s suit challenging a sealing order issued by authority on June 17 for absence of parking space.

The impugned judgment said the building, ‘commercial by birth’, preceded the promulgation of the Sindh Building Control Ordinance (SBCO), 1979. The KBCA could not issue a sealing order on the ground that it lacked parking space as the building being prior to the 1979 ordinance did not fall within its remit. Addition, alteration or change in the existing building would not authorize the KBCA to exercise powers under Section 7-A of the SBCO providing for sealing of violative structures.

In its appeal, the authority relied on the Karachi Building and Town Planning Regulations, 2002, besides the provisions of the SBCO. It said the word ‘construction’ occurring in Sections 3 (d) and 6(1) of the SBCO included ‘reconstruction’ in all its variations.

Admitting the appeal, a division bench, comprising Justices Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Mohammad Athar Saeed, issued notices to the respondents.