Daily Times

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday stopped Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) from demolishing a building in East Garden by issuing a stay order on a petition filed by the residents of the area.

The anti-encroachment team of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) was scheduled to raze a building in East Garden area but the residents of the building approached the SHC and filed a petition against the demolition.

According to the petition filed by the residents of the locality, the relevant authorities had issued a map of two floors of the building but the residents had submitted challan for additional floors of the building back in 1996. The residents claimed in the petition that officials of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) did not carry forward the case legally.

The SHC issued a stay order on the petition and directed KMC not the destroy the building as a part of the anti-encroachment drive.

Meanwhile, another similar petition was filed in the SHC by businessmen of Karachi’s Lee Market. The petition requested the court to halt KMC from demolishing 172 shops in the area.

Back on November 14, Minister of Local Bodies Saeed Ghani said that a committee had been formed to recompense the losses of those who were genuinely affected by the anti-encroachment drive. “The deserving individuals who suffered losses to their properties during the operating against encroachments will be given compensations as per the recommendations of the constituted committee,” he said.

The Supreme Court on October 27 had directed Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar, to remove all encroachments from the city’s amenity plots and pavements with the help of law enforcement agencies (LEAs). The SC granted a 15-day deadline to city authorities for compliance of its orders.

Published in Daily Times, December 5^th 2018.