Daily Times

KARACHI: Part plans of the newly planned high rises have been completely stopped after a ban imposed by the Supreme court of Pakistan on the construction of Multi Story buildings in Karachi.

This ban is sigh of relief for the citizens of Karachi who were fed up the over strained construction and the portions being built on small plots which are becoming nuisance to the residents of the areas.

The builders were also involved in the destruction of the greenery of the city since they were uprooting the trees in abundance planted in old bungalows but were totally reluctant to plant new trees after building plazas on the place.

The uprooting of trees is a sheer violence and is contributing to the global warming and the growing temperature of the city and the these builders who are involved in it should be dealt strictly, rather they should be ordered to plant millions of trees in the city which they have uprooted or they should be send behind bars, said Abdullah Mumtaz Khan an environmentalist working for the betterment of Karachi.

SBCA has slapped a complete ban on construction of beyond ground-plus-two storeys. A notification by SBCA said that in compliance with an order passed by Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) on March 16 in a Constitutional petition, ‘complete ban has been imposed on construction of multi-storey or high-rise buildings beyond ground-plus-two storey in Karachi region forthwith’.

An official of SBCA said the ban had been imposed in light of SCP’s order, which came after the petition filled by KWSB that it had deficient resources to supply water for the increasing number of high-rise buildings, which were increasingly popping up on the city’s landscape.

No application for a high-rise building after issuance of this notification will be entertained,” official added.

Meanwhile, Waseem Akhtar Mayor Karachi was of the view, “This notification is not sufficient to address concerns about the city’s highly fragile infrastructure. It is not enough not to allow future high-rise buildings in the city; what is more important is that the relevant authorities should cancel all those no objection certificate (NOCs), which they have already issued to more than 100 skyscrapers, which have not yet been constructed”.

He said the city’s infrastructure was extremely vulnerable; it had a worn-out sewerage and drainage system while less than half of the water required for its population was being supplied.

Such buildings will eat up the city’s limited resources and leave our people even more deprived of getting the facilities they are heavily taxed for.

Hashim Raza Zaidi, Managing Director KWSB in a letter KWSB/2017/903-A/L March 29, 2017, to Ramzan Awan, Secretary Local Government Department Sindh has informed that KWSB has imposed complete ban on new water connections for construction of multistory, high-rise building till the water shortage is overcome in compliance of the orders of SCP.

“There may be a complete ban on construction of multistorey and a high-rise (vertical) building till the water shortage is overcome and new resources of drinking water are put in place”.

KWSB also requested ban on construction of multistorey and high-rise buildings by SBCA and earliest implementation of directives of SCP in the matter.

Despite payment of all required official dues of land and for building commercial sites besides completion of all paper documentation process, it seems harsh for builders and developers to stop them from their legitimate work, said an official of ABAD .

Government has stopped building activities for the last many years and only private sector is providing shelter facility to the needy people in the city, he added.

“Water supply to citizens is the sheer responsibility of concerned government authorities we don’t have anything to do with it “, he asserted.