If a single oil tanker is seen in the city after one week, action will be taken against the concerned authorities, warned the judges during the last hearing. PHOTO: MOHAMMAD NOMAN/FILE
A two-judge bench, comprising justices Gulzar Ahmed and Maqbool Baqar, gave the commissioner a week’s time to comply with the court’s order and submit a report on its implementation.
The order came on a petition filed by Shukar Din, who had taken the South District Municipal Corporation high-ups to the apex court for allegedly unlawfully cancelling allotment of a cabin in Lea Market.
During the hearing, the judges wondered how the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) and district municipal corporation authorities could set-up the shops and cabins on amenity spaces, such as public parks and grounds, and allot them for commercial purposes.
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Justice Ahmed, the head of the bench, observed that there was no legal provision that could permit the establishment of shops and cabins on amenity spaces and further allot them to the private individuals in order to use them for commercial purposes.
“The whole city has been turned into carts and cabins,” remarked the bench, coming down hard on the Karachi commissioner over the manner in which the amenity spaces were being misused for commercial gains in clear violation of the laws and judgments rendered by the apex judiciary.
Justice Baqar, the other bench member, told the Karachi commissioner to stop his officers from making the amenity spaces a source of income.
The bench directed the commissioner to ensure that all such shops and cabins, set-up in an illegal and unauthorised manner in the public parks, grounds and other amenity spaces were removed within one week.
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It further directed him to ensure a full-fledged operation was launched across the city. The commissioner will personally supervise the operation and will ensure all the district municipal corporations implement the apex court’s directives in letter and spirit.
Tanker terminal
The same bench, meanwhile, directed the Sindh government and KMC to provide all the facilities to the Zulfiqarabad Oil Tanker Terminal within a week and submit a compliance report.
While hearing a suo motu case regarding illegal parking of oil tankers in Shireen Jinnah Colony, the judges said facilities such as fire-fighting equipment and others should be made available at the new terminal in order to cope with any untoward situation.
Filing their reports, the home secretary and commissioner informed that the terminal had been made functional in compliance with the court's orders passed last week.
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Justice Baqar observed that the authorities lacked the capacity to meet any untoward incident such as the incident in Ahmedpur Sharqia where 216 people were burnt alive in a fire that involved an oil tanker.
"Unfortunately, no lesson has been learnt even from the death of 216 people," he remarked and questioned what will happen if any untoward incident will take place at the new terminal where 2,800 oil tankers will be parked.
The home secretary replied that some people had vested interests in allowing parking of the large oil tankers within the city. However, Justice Ahmed told the officer that the state should assert its writ, as 'no one is more powerful than the state'. He asked the officer why officers on senior posts await the court's orders to do what they themselves were supposed to do.
The bench members noted it was very shameful that the court's orders had not been completely acted upon despite the lapse of one week's time.
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The commissioner said a case regarding theft of pole-mounted transformers and electric wires from the new terminal had been lodged. He added the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital management was being contacted for provision of medical facilities in case of emergencies.
The home secretary said the government will provide Rs157 million to the KMC for the terminal.
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