KARACHI, Dec 10: The properties situated on the six roads declared commercial by a provincial government notification issued under the Karachi Development Authority Order of 1957 (since repealed) in July 1998 stand commercialized and no permission or payment of fee for their conversion is required from or to the city district government, the defunct KDA's successor-in-interest, the Sindh High Court held on Friday.
The judgment allowed three petitions involving commercialization of residential plots in three neighbourhoods. The first petition was moved by retired Capt S.M. Aslam, who appeared in person to argue that his 1,000 square yard plot on Rashid Minhas Road was first commercialized in 1991 and the KDA fixed the rate of Rs 300 per square yard for conversion.
He moved a petition in 1998 and the high court directed the KDA to sanction conversion. The authority, however, informed the petitioner in September 2001 that the commercialization policy had been held in abeyance.
The city district government's master plan group of offices asked the petitioner in March 2004 that a new policy on change of land use and master planning had been formulated in 2003 and that he should apply for commercialization under it and pay the conversion fee prescribed by it.
The petitioner approached the court again saying that he had applied for conversion as far back as 1991 and could not be charged 'the new, exorbitant rates'.
A division bench, comprising Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Amir Hani Muslim, held that once an amendment in the 'zonal plan scheme' had been made by the 1998 provincial government under Article 40 (3) of the KDA Order, there was no need to seek permission from the KDA or its successor, the city district government.
"Specific permission of the KDA (or the CDGK) will be required only if a person desires to use land for a purpose other than that laid down in the (amended) zonal plan scheme", it said.
The bench rejected the argument of CDGK counsel Manzoor Ahmed that the petitioner had only disputed the quantum of conversion rate and the relief should be confined to his prayer.
The court, the bench observed, had ample power to grant an unsolicited relief to meet the ends of justice. The CDGK resolution of January 2004 prescribing new rates would not apply to the petitioner's plot.
The bench also repelled the counsel's argument that since the 1957 KDA Order had been repealed by the Sindh Local Government Ordinance, 2001, the successor CDGK could lay down a new commercialization policy.
The rights which have already accrued would remain intact, it said. The petitioner was free to construct a commercial building without seeking permission or pay fee but subject to the approval of the Karachi Building Control Authority chief executive (the city nazim).
The second petition was moved by Muneer Malik through Advocate Rasheed A. Razvi in respect of his plot in the Sindh Muslim Housing Society. The bench allowed him to raise a commercial structure without payment of conversion fee subject to approval of his plan as the SMHS was also covered by the 1998 notification.
No permission was required from the CDGK, it added. The third petition was moved by the owner of a plot on Shaheed-i-Millat Road who had already paid the conversion fee in 1984 but was asked by the city district government to pay the balance as calculated under the new policy.
The petitioner is free to approach the KBCA with a concept plan for building a commercial complex without a no-objection certificate from the CDGK, the bench declared.