Top court's ruling in Bahria Town case lifts business sentiments

Businessmen see dividends for all stakeholders

KARACHI: The business community on Thursday welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision, accepting Bahria Town, Karachi’s offer of Rs460 billion, saying that the decision would be beneficial for all the stakeholders.

The businessmen said that the decision would resume construction activities worth trillion of rupees and directly improve the economic activities at times when structural reforms had slowed them down.

“I think this is a very good decision. This was a commercial issue and resolved commercially. This is fair for both the parties; the seller of the land and the buyer of the land,” renowned businessman Arif Habib said.

More importantly, he said, the Supreme Court decision would resume construction activities in Bahria Town, Karachi, which would ultimately give a huge relief to the people, having invested millions and billions of rupees in the project.

“This is a huge project [worth trillions of rupees]. The decision would help boost economic activities as construction [sector] and dozens of allied industries [like cement, steel, labour, contacting companies, paint, electrical and electronic goods etc] play significant role in GDP growth,” he added.

People from different walk of life have invested in the project, Habib said. Investors were nervous, the construction work stopped and so as the sale and purchase of plots in the project, he added.

“Now, the decision should improve business sentiment and investors in the project would feel relived because the resumption of work on the projects.”

Another noted businessman, Aqeel Karim Dhedhi, said that it was “a very good decision” and provided relief to the thousands of the people who had invested around $2 trillion in the project. He added that this decision would improve economic and business activities in the country.



According to Dhedhi, a halt to construction activities at the project site made construction and allied industries dead while the overall business sentiment in real estate and property sector went negative. “This increased unemployment and crimes,” he said.

“The Supermen Court decision now changes the sentiment to positive and provides job opportunities. This will also make investors, builders and developers happy and energetic. This is win-win situation for all the stakeholders in the project,” Dhedhi added. “It is win-win situation for everyone including, genuine buyers, local investors, non-resident Pakistani and other overseas investors.”

Lucky Cement Chief Executive Muhammad Ali Tabba said the issue was pending for quite some time. The Supreme Court decision would now help resume the suspended construction activities. “Construction activities, whether small or big, support economic growth in the country,” he said. The construction activities also improve businesses of the allied industries, including cement and steel, he added.

Shaban Elahi, President of the Pakistan Real Estate Investment Forum, said that the decision had ended “uncertainty” in the real estate and property sector. The Supreme Court decision helped cement and steel companies listed on Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) attract renewed buying, JS Research reported.