KARACHI, Oct 26: Karachi Building Control Authority staff sealed the controversial Jahangir Khan Sports Complex that was fast coming up on an amenity plot along Kashmir Road for ‘unauthorised construction against approved plan’ on Friday evening, it emerged here on Saturday.

According to sources, KBCA staff, fearing resistance against the sealing by the sports complex management and as a precaution, first went to the area police in the afternoon and informed them about their plan to seal the sports complex being built by the living squash legend Jahangir Khan and completed their task.

The sources said the KBCA staff gave ample time to the sports complex management to take out its furniture and other goods from the premises so that it could be sealed and after the removal of the goods the job was done.

The sources said that the KBCA had issued a letter to Jahangir Khan over a couple of weeks back asking him to present the approved plans for the sports complex but despite the expiry of the prescribed period no documents/ approved plans were presented for scrutiny to the building controllers.

Following his failure to present the approved plans and other legal documents, the KBCA issued a final notice to the former world squash champion on Wednesday to present the required documents/ legal approvals and other related documents etc within 24 hours — the deadline which again the sports complex management failed to meet, and rather submitted a letter asking for its extension.

In response to the KBCA’s final notice the complex management approached the Sindh Building Control Authority director general on Friday and through its Oct 24, 2013 communication on the subject of ‘extension of notice period’ referred to the notice issued to it.

The communication says: “with reference to the your notice No SBCA/DD/-1/205/2013 dated Oct 23, 2013 about Jahangir Khan Sports Complex we request you to give us some time as Mr Jahangir Khan is out of country and no authorised person is available. Therefore we are unable to provide you the necessary information.

“However, we will do our best effort and assure you that we will provide you the information required by you as soon as possible. Considering the non-availability of authorised person and time constraint, we humbly request you to extend the deadline given by you and obliged.”

The letter does not even carry the name and designation of the person writing and is just signed ‘for Janahgir Khan Sports Complex’.

SBCA director general Manzoor Qadir after getting this response ordered building controller/ director of building in Jamshed Town Safdar Magsi on Friday to “please take legal action”.

The KBCA sealing order — No SBCA/DD-1/JMT/2013/728/2013 issued on Oct 25, 2013 — that has been displayed/ pasted on the sealed premises says: “Subject: sealing of premises on plot No ST-5, Jahangir Khan Sports Complex Kashmir Road, Jamshed Town, Karachi.

“The subject premises is hereby sealed under Section 7 A, of Sindh Building Control Ordinance 1979 – 2002 (amended up to date) on account of unauthorised construction against the approved building plan. If anybody trespasses the premises or tempers the seal, he / she / they shall be punished under Section 19, of the SBCO 1979 – 2002 (amended up to date) or any other penal action permissible under the law.”

A copy of the sealing order was also given to the station house officer of the Jamshed Town police station with the request to keep a strict watch over the sealed premises, said the sources.

They said that earlier SBCA/ KBCA officials were reluctant to take any punitive action as they could not trace any approvals/ record/ documents related to the Jahangir Khan Sports Complex. However, later they dug deep into the heaps of the departmental record and eventually found a register in which all the approvals of buildings plans issued by the authority are mentioned.

The entry No 340 (dated Jan 11, 2008) in the approval register shows that the approval had been given to Jahangir Khan for the PIA Jahangir Khan Squash Complex on plot No ST-5 (11,897 square yards) Kashmir Road, Jamshed Quarters for ‘Ground plus first floor’ and the consultants/ engineers/ architects named in the entry are ‘Mushtaq H. Dawood’ and ‘Habib Fida Ali’ for whom scrutiny fees of Rs365,513 and Rs113,049, respectively, had also been paid.

The sources said that as against the approval (ground plus first floor) mentioned in the KBCA register, the building on site has six levels (floors) — including three levels of basement and ground plus two upper floors. Witnessing this grave difference in the approval available with them and the building on site and non-submission of the documents by Jahangir Khan, the building construction regulators decided to take legal action and sealed the building.

Meanwhile, following the publication of a report about the Jahangir Khan Sports Complex in Dawn on Oct 20, 2013, at least two government departments have sought reports on the subject.

Karachi Commissioner Shoaib Siddiqui in his Oct 21communication — No PS/CKD/1040/2013 — on subject of ‘construction of sports club’ — to deputy commissioner-East Samiuddin Siddiqui has asked for a report on the issue particularly in respect of ‘1) height construction in the vicinity of Mazar-i-Quaid; 2) Status of plot; and 3) building control regulations’.

“You are requested to look into the matter and sort out issues in coordination with the relevant departments such as Quaid-i-Azam Mazar Management Board; Sindh Building Control Authority and Karachi Metropolitan Corporation. Please send a report in seven days,” says the communication.

Responding to Dawn queries, QMMB official Jawad Mughal said his organisation had also approached the SBCA/ KBCA and the master plan department of the KMC/ KDA on the issue of the height of the Jahangir Khan Sports Complex building as to what its height was and if it was in conflict with the height restriction – no construction should be higher than the level of the podium of the Mazar of the Quaid-i-Azam within the restricted zone around the Mazar which includes the sports complex – imposed in the vicinity.

Jahangir Khan worked in Pakistan International Airlines before it ‘retired’ him. He moved the services tribunal which ordered his reinstatement, but the PIA rather than giving him his job back gave him for 25 years its squash complex constructed on a two-and-a-half-acre plot worth over a couple of billion rupees. The sportsperson wanted to construct a bigger complex, height of which was in conflict with the height ceiling imposed in the vicinity of the Mazar-i-Quaid. To accommodate him he was given an ‘addition/ alternation/ renovation’ approval. With this approval and another approval for ‘ground plus one floor’ in pocket, the former world squash champion demolished the squash complex on the amenity plot and constructed a huge building that offers many commercial facilities – such as a cinema, fast food outlet, restaurants, beauty parlour, hair salon and massage rooms – not related to sports. The record relating to land and construction is not available in the PIA, KMC/ KDA/, KBCA/ SBCA, and the QMMB does not know its height.

Calls made by this reporter to Mr Khan’s mobile phone to get his version on Saturday were not answered.