PECHS nullah encroachment case: Apex court wants master plan of the housing society

Bench was hearing petition filed by KMC seeking removal of illegally built shops from drain

KARACHI: The Supreme Court (SC) summoned on Tuesday the director of the master plan department, along with a complete record pertaining to the land of a drain, which is illegally encroached upon in the Pakistan Employees Cooperative Housing Society (PECHS).

A two-judge bench, headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed, directed the director to submit the master plan of the housing society within two weeks. The bench was hearing a petition filed by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) seeking the removal of illegally built shops from the drain.



KMC had approached the apex court against alleged illegal construction from the drain passing through Block 6 of the PECHS.

An officer representing the metropolitan corporation informed the judges that as many as 89 shops had illegally been built over the drain's land and sold out in violation of the building rules and regulations. He said the unauthorised constructions were causing hurdles in cleaning of the drain, which could expose the residents to difficulties.

When confronted by the judges, the officer could not give a satisfactory reply.

This visibly irked the bench members, who came down hard on the KMC authorities for failing to perform their obligations.



They noted with serious concerns as to whether the courts were supposed to summon one officer on one hearing and then a senior officer on the next hearing.

A bench member, Justice Maqbool Baqar, observed that due to the irresponsible attitude of the officers, the cases keep lingering for years and years.

Taking serious exception to such irresponsible attitude of the officer, who was present in the court, the judges summoned the director of the master plan department to appear, along with a complete record relating to the status of the land in question.

The director was given two weeks to submit the record.