Daily Times

KARACHI: The Supreme Court (SC) has ordered the Karachi commissioner to double the number of labourers and demolish the Nasla Tower within one week. A three-member larger bench, headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, heard important cases at the SC Karachi Registry, The News reported.

In its written orders, the apex court directed the commissioner to double the number of labourers from 200 to 400 to demolish the Nasla Tower within a week and set a time-frame of 20 days to demolish Tejori Heights.

Earlier, Chairman of Association of Builders and Developers ABAD, Mohsin Shaikhani, asked holding the relevant government departments accountable as the entire building was not constructed in a day. Shaikhani said that the chief minister and chief secretary of Sindh should be held responsible for the state of affairs and urged them to sit with them and collectively take steps for improvement of Karachi.

Earlier, on Friday, Sindh Information Minister Saeed Ghani had demanded that those who were responsible for issuing construction permits for the Nasla Tower building should be held responsible and punished.

Speaking on Geo News show Aaj Shahzaib Khanzada Kay Saath, the minister had said the guilty party — whether it be the Sindh government or the Nasla Tower builder — should be punished rather than those who bought the flats.

“For [the] sake of argument if I say the builder is at fault, Sindh government is at fault, Saeed Ghani is at fault or even if Murad Ali Shah is at fault, punish them first,” he had said.

He had called on the courts to hand exemplary punishments to those responsible for the construction of the tower rather than those who were residing in it.

“I don’t think they [Nasla Tower affectees] are even 1% responsible,” he stated. “When they bought flats or shops there, I am sure they must have checked all the SBCA approvals and maps before doing so,” he had added.