No more high-rise buildings, says judicial commission

DHA, cantonments also asked to submit approval criteria for their areas

KARACHI: A judicial commission has restrained the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) from issuing any more approvals for high-rise buildings.

The commission, formed to probe drinking water shortage and poor sanitation in Sindh, also issued on Tuesday notices to Defence Housing Authority (DHA), cantonment boards, Karachi commissioner and Karachi Development Authority director-general to submit their criteria for issuing approval to multi-storey buildings. It believed that unchecked growth of such buildings has led to a water shortage in the city.

Headed by Justice Muhammad Iqbal Kalhoro, the commission was probing allegations that SBCA bypasses rules when it approves the building plans for high-rise buildings, leading to problems in water supply and sanitation. This was pointed out to him by Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) managing director Misbahuddin Farid a day earlier.

SBCA has been issuing such approvals without the approval of KWSB and the Sindh Environment Protection Agency since 2002, admitted SBCA director-general Noor Muhammad Langha, who failed to explain how the building authority issued the approvals without the mandatory feasibility reports.

Langha sought time to file a written report with all necessary details, such as betterment charges and whether or not such charges are being levied to ensure a proper scheme in the building construction plan. The commission directed him to also explain whether or not there was a mechanism that the SBCA adopts to ensure that the water and sanitation plans are complied with during the actual construction, and how the SBCA is utilising the above charges.

Until SBCA submits this report, it will not issue any building approval plan for any project that exceeds two storeys, assured Langha. Sinch chief secretary's focal person Saeed Ahmed Qureshi recorded no objection to this arrangement and the assurance was included in the commission's order.

DHA, cantonment boards

The commission was told that the approval plans for buildings located within the jurisdiction of DHA and cantonment boards were issued by the relevant departments. It, therefore, issued notices to the chief executive officers of Clifton, Karachi, Malir, Faisal, Korangi Creek and Manora cantonment boards to appear on January 25. These officers will explain their mechanism to ensure all buildings have provision of potable water and proper sanitation.

Treatment plant

The additional chief secretary also filed a briefing on the construction of the combined effluent treatment plant at SITE, Kotri. He also produced a notification issued by the provincial government on January 24 regarding the constitution of a committee to visit and identify the progress of work at the treatment plant.

The committee will submit its report within five days upon which, the secretary said, he will be able to file a definite report with the timeline to run the plant. The commission deferred the hearing till January 30.

The commission directed the industries secretary to file a comprehensive report on the mode and manner in which effluent produced by industries all over the province is being disposed of. It also directed the secretary to explain the role and responsibility of his department, the availability of resources to monitor the disposal of industrial effluent, the finances spent on such resources and the action, if any, taken against any industry for violating the law regulating disposal. He will file a report answering these queries by January 30.

Mansoor, the son of the All Pakistan Textile Processing Association chairperson, submitted a statement on behalf of his father that the industrial units in their associations were not generating any hazardous or toxic effluent.

SEPA managing director Naeem Ahmed Mughal and Suleman Chandio, who are assisting the commission as Amicus Curiae, said that the textile processing industries were also producing toxic and hazardous effluent, containing greasy wool, waste cotton, dyes, caustic solutions, etc. Mansoor requested for time to file a statement by January 28.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25^th, 2017.