KARACHI: The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday observed that the buildings of SC, Sindh Assembly and Sindh High Court (SHC) would also be encroached soon if the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) did not take effective measures against encroachers.
Justice Gulzar Ahmed passed these remarks while heading a two-judge bench that was hearing a petition regarding illegal construction at an evacuee trust property in Lyari, at the court’s Karachi registry.
During the hearing, the bench of the apex court came down hard on SBCA over their failure in removal of unauthorised construction on the said land. Justice Gulzar remarked that SBCA officials keep their eyes closed to illegal construction and the SBCA should be closed if it was not giving a fruitful result.
He added that there are so many illegal buildings in the city in general, and in Saddar area in particular, saying that the builders used to flee after receiving an amount in advance but there was nobody to take them to the task.
Justice Gulzar went on to say that Sindh government was equally responsible in this regard. Karachi has become a ‘jungle of cable’, the situation is not different at Shahrah-e-Faisal, one of the main roads of the city.
Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, the other member of the bench, noted that the persons who were earning only a few thousand in the past had now become billionaires through malpractices. He added that there was no one to take action against illegal constructions in the city.
The additional advocate general submitted that there are law and order issue in Lyari, which is why the government was avoiding the use of force. He added that the contractor who was arrested on the court directives had been granted bail by the high court.
Directing the chief secretary to take effective measures for removing such construction, the court sought compliance report.
