CJP to hear cases of public importance in Karachi today

A three-member Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Gulzar Ahmed, will hear several important cases at the Karachi Registry of the apex court today pertaining to the removal of encroachments, unauthorised multi-storey construction in different parts of Karachi and illegal conversion of amenity lands in the city.

The Supreme Court has issued notices to the advocate general of Sindh, the deputy attorney general, the chief secretary, the secretaries of defence, establishment division, interior ministry, railways, planning division and provincial transport department, the Karachi commissioner and mayor, cantonment boards, land-owning agencies and others to appear and submit their responses in compliances with the court directives.

The Supreme Court has form time to time issued observations with regard to non-compliance with its orders in cases of illegal constructions, misuses of state land, and encroachments on public roads and footpaths.

The court in its previous order had observed that there is total collapse of all civic agencies in the Karachi and had directed the Sindh government, especially the chief minister to take proper action for remedying the state of affairs in the city.

The court directed the government of Sindh, especially the chief minister, to go into all these matters and to take proper action for remedying this state of affairs. The court expected that the CM would sit with all agencies of the city and also with the mayor to resolve these and other issues facing the city with absolute promptness, for the situation was worsening day by day.

It observed that it was likely that further mess would come up before the court as all sorts of illegal activities had been allowed to be conducted on land meant for parks, amenity land meant for education, hospitals and graveyards, and constructions had been made all over without taking into consideration the very viability, permissibility, suitability or legality of such constructions at the place where they had been raised.

The apex court observed that no city planner and developer or proper architect engineer and environmental agencies were involved in such work and everything was going on through the hands of the people who were not at all qualified to undertake it.

It said that there were so many katchi abadies in Karachi and even government quarters were giving the look of a slum area. It observed that the Sindh government and the Karachi mayor should ensure that all these places and their inhabitants were properly located in a decent manner as was done in other countries.

Regarding the execution of the green line bus project by the Karachi infrastructure development company, the court observed that the development of infrastructure in Karachi was the basic job of local governments and it was not known as to how and for what purpose such a company had been incorporated by the federal government.

The court observed that it has been stated that no approval of the city government has been obtained for planning, development and maintaining of the green line nor has any traffic engineering aspect of it been examined and approved by the KMC.

It stated that it seems to be a serious issue which needs to be addressed by the relevant parties in order to ensure that whatever work is done in the city of Karachi is in accordance with the law and not against the mandate of the law, for the work done against the mandate of law is liable to have serious consequences.

The court directed the chief secretary, the Karachi commissioner, KMC, DG KDA, SBCA, MDA and LDA to submit reports regarding the removal of encroachments from government lands, parks, playgrounds and all other amenity lands.

It directed chairman of the Karachi Port Trust to submit a report to show if all port lands are used for port purposes and in accordance with the KPT Act and no land of the port is either sold, transferred leased to any person or its employee, and whatever allotment, lease or transfer has taken place it should be immediately cancelled and reverted to the port. It directed the KPT chairman to ensure the plantation of mangroves on both sides of Mai Kolachi road and the flow of sea water is restored touching the Bath Island area.

The Supreme Court also directed the DHA administrator to remove encroachments from open plots and submit a compliance report. It directed the chief executive officer of Pakistan International Airlines to ensure that all lands allotted to the PIA for its own use are not exploited commercially and to submit a detailed report about the land allotted to the PIA.

Regarding the operation of the circular railways, the court directed the secretary railways to remove all encroachments from the railways land within two weeks, and said thereafter the Sindh government would take over the circular railways projects and run the circular railways/local trains within one month.

It directed that the mayor and the commissioner of Karachi and the chief minister to ensure that the schedule for the operation of the circular railway service was made available to the people. The court observed that affected persons should be settled by the provincial government by providing them all basic amenities.

It also issued a contempt of court notice to local bodies minister Saeed Ghani on an application of Syed Mehmood Akhtar Naqvi, who sought action against the local bodies minister for his reported statement in which he said that he would not allow demolition of unauthorised buildings under court orders; rather, he would prefer tendering his resignation.

The court directed the secretary defence to comply with its orders and remove all commercial activities from the cantonment board land expeditiously and submit a detailed report by the next session.

It took exception to the performance of the Sindh Building Control Authority and the Karachi Development Authority and inquired of the DG SBCA as to how multi-storey buildings had been constructed in Dehli Colony, TNT Colony and Punjab Colony in violation of the building bylaws.

The court directed the DG SBCA to submit master plans of the city since 1952 along with amendments about how many amenity areas were converted for commercial and residential purposes. The SBCA director general submitted that the ongoing operation against unauthorised constructions had been slowed due to the provincial government’s decision, which first wanted to rehabilitate the affected people of unauthorised constructions.

Regarding unauthorised constructions in kidney hill and hill park areas, the court directed the commissioner to examine each and every case of the lease holders after issuing them a notice, and the parks would be developed on modern lines to provide facilities to the citizens of Karachi.

The court directed the DG KDA and civic agencies to ensure compliance with its order with regard to the removal of encroachments from the YMCA ground, Muslim Gymkhana and Hindu Gymkhana. It directed the provincial government to provide alternative space to the National Academy of Performing Arts and shift the office of NAPA from the Hindu Gymkhana.