SHC adjourns hearing against Clifton board

Petitioner says the garbage bin is a threat to hygiene and health of residents.

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) adjourned the hearing of a constitutional petition against the Cantonment Board Clifton (CBC) for constructing a garbage dump (kachra kundi) on the Ch Khaliquzzaman Road when it was informed that CBC stopped the construction after they received a notice.

Shouaun Nabi, counsel for petitioner Iftikharuddin Siddiqui, told the court on Friday that work on the garbage bin has been halted.

He sought time to file a rejoinder to the reply by the CBC, after which the bench adjourned further proceedings to a date to be fixed later by the office of the court.

The petitioner said that he has constructed a multi-storey commercial/residential complex on about a 600-square-yards plot. At the time of construction, there was no plan to construct a garbage bin alongside the busy street in Block 8, KDA, scheme 5, Clifton and now that bin’s construction is hurting him ‘commercially’. The bin is also right next to a playground for children, an Eidgah and a bus-stop and not only would it be a great inconvenience to the general public, it would pose threats to the hygiene and health of residents, added the petitioner.

He alleged that CBC took the decision to construct the bin on its own and did not confer with the residents in that area.

On the last date of hearing, the SHC bench had given interim orders that no further construction would be carried on and on Friday, it ordered a continuation of the same directives.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 15^th, 2011.