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KARACHI, Feb 16: A lawyer has moved the Sindh High Court against the shifting of the US consulate in the city to an amenity plot in Clifton.
Impleading the provincial government, the city district government, the Civil Aviation Authority and the Environmental Protection Agency as respondents, Advocate Qazi Ali Athar submitted in his petition that an amenity plot could not be put to any other use.
The government decision to allow relocation of the US consulate was violative of the law, the Sindh Building Control Ordinance, the Karachi Building and Town Planning Regulations and the superior court judgements on convesion of amenity plots.
He said the problems the consulate and its neighbouring buildings were facing at its present location would still be there. The residents around the new site would be put to hardship and inconvenience.
They would lose not only a park site and open space but face problems owing to the security arrangements to be made for the consulate and increased traffic and the resulting noise pollution. Women and school-going children would, in particular, be inconvenienced.
The mere fact that a park had not fully been developed at the site by the authorities concerned did not mean that it could be used for a diplomatic complex. The petitioner sought a direction to the authorities to develop a park as planned without further delay.
The scrapping of the park project and construction on the open space would adversely affect the environment of the area. Parks are like lungs in urban areas and anti-pollution measures are inconceivable without them. He sought orders against the proposed shifting and conversion and for completion of a park and sports complex at the site as originally planned.
NOTICE ISSUED: The Sindh High Court issued the advocate-general a pre admission notice in a petition alleging illegal arrest and confinement of a man by an unnamed law enforcement agency (LEA).
Petitioner Abdul Khaliq alleged that his residence at PECHS was raided by LEA personnel of an agency on Feb 4. They took away his brother, Mohammad Rizwan, without disclosing any reason and nothing had been heard of him since. His whereabouts were not known.
Citing the provincial home department, the inspector-general of police and the SHO of Ferozabad police station as respondents, he requested the court to order Rizwan's production and release, if he was not required in a case.
A division bench, comprising Chief Justice Saiyed Saeed Ashhad and Justice Maqbool Baqar, issued the AG a notice for Feb 23 to ascertain whether he was detained by any LEA and, if so, by which agency.
ENLARGED ON BAIL: An appellate bench of the Sindh High Court suspended the sentence of former national hockey team captain Mansoor Ahmed and enlarged him on bail against a surety of Rs 500,000.
The former Olympian was prosecuted by the National Accountability Bureau and convicted by an accountability court for removing 1087 kilograms of silver from a customs warehouse in his capacity as senior preventive officer.
He was found guilty and sentenced to undergo seven years of rigorous imprisonment and pay a fine of Rs 2 million. He challenged his conviction and sentence in the high court.
His counsel, Ismat Mehdi, moved an application in the pending appeal, saying the appellant was entitled to release as he had served out his substantive jail term if allowed the benefit of remissions under Section 82 of the code of criminal procedure.
The accused was arrested on Sept 11, 2001, and had remained behind bars since. The division bench, comprising Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Azizullah M. Memon, suspended the sentence and admitted him to bail in the sum of Rs 500,000.
DEMOLITION ORDERED: Justice Syed Zawar Hussain Jafri of the Sindh High Court on Wednesday cancelled a regularisation plan issued by Karachi Building Control Authority (KBCA) on Dec 30, 2003, in violation of orders by SHC benches to demolish the disputed construction of Hajiyani Manzil, adds APP.
Earlier, the bench heard counsel Naseem Qamar, who appearing on behalf of petitioners Ali Mohammad and Mohammad Hussain, owners of shops in the disputed building informed that the SHC benches deciding two constitutional petitions pertaining to alleged illegal construction have ordered demolition, but the KBCA is not complying with the orders.
The bench held that "KBCA authorities have deliberately exceeded their jurisdiction, connived and collaborated with the builder in his design to perpetuate the illegality which they had tooth and nail opposed till the disposal of this petition ".
The bench noted that directions by the SHC were simply ignored and the undertaking by KBCA of complete demolition was also not adhered to. The bench held that action by KBCA amounts to contempt of court but taking a lenient view hoped that KBCA officials will obey the order passed on Wednesday.
The bench, disposing of the petition, ordered that all residents and occupants of the building, including the petitioners, shall be asked to vacate the premises for compliance of orders of the court.
