SBCA in the dock

As CJP has regularly been taking officials to task for their lackadaisical performance

The Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Gulzar Ahmed, has regularly been taking officials to task for their lackadaisical performance in improving civic affairs in the country and Sindh province, especially Karachi. This gives us hope. Yesterday, he reprimanded officials for the state of Karachi’s infrastructure while hearing a case pertaining to removal of encroachments. A three-member bench of the Supreme Court, comprising the Chief Justice, Justice Faisal Arab and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, had taken up miscellaneous petitions in the SC’s Karachi registry.

The court ordered the removal of the director general of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) and expelled another official of the SBCA from the courtroom for allowing illegal expansion of buildings. In its order, the court said an ‘honest officer’ should be appointed as director general of the SBCA. It asked the Sindh chief secretary to look into the matter and take legal action against officials found involved in corruption. “This department of yours [SBCA] is very corrupt,” the court said to the provincial advocate general.

In Karachi, entire parks, graveyards and residential plots had vanished — something that the Chief Justice also pointed out. “Unauthorised portions are being built after openly taking bribes, in every street, every block of Nazimabad. This is total destruction of the city of Karachi,” the top judge remarked. He ordered the removal of petrol pumps and other structures built over drains. Allowing structures, especially petrol pumps, over drains is an act of utter neglect. Gas formation takes place inside drains that can cause explosion endangering lives. Some years ago, explosions had taken place in Urdu Bazaar inside drains causing considerable damage to buildings built over the drains and in the surrounding areas.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 7^th, 2020.

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