HYDERABAD, June 7: The Hyderabad circuit bench of the Sindh High Court on Thursday restrained the Arif Builders, which is constructing a 7-storey building on the plot of former Cafe George in the midst of the city, from raising any construction except strictly in accordance with buildings plans approved by the competent authority

The court passed the order on an application, which it converted into a constitutional petition, filed by Mohammad Amjad who was appearing in person to plead his case.

Mr Amjad, who cited Arif Builders, director general of Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA) Altaf Memon, former director building control HDA Masood Jumani and director building control Hameed Memon as respondents, said that Medina Blessings was being built in the midst of the city after demolishing Cafe George in violation of building by-laws.

According to rules, the builder should have left a space of around eight foot for sidewalk but he did not do so and occupied the sidewalk as well. There was no room for parking vehicles and the area was already too congested not only for traffic but also for pedestrians.

He referred to a report submitted by Additional Advocate General (AAG) Sindh Masood A. Noorani, about construction of some commercial plazas in violation of building by-laws, which had also mentioned Medina Blessings.

He said that the builder had also used a thoroughfare of around 5x45 which passed by the plaza. Arif Builders got the building plan approved in his name and later Naeem Farooque and Haneef Memon Bhoora (respondents) got it revised in their names.

He said that the building plan of Medina Blessings should be presented in the court and the ongoing work on the project should be stopped as the three builders were trying to squander people's investment.

The counsel for builders sought time for submitting reply to the constitutional petition and denied charges the respondent was raising any building in violation of approved plan.