It may be a surprise to millions of people affected by illegal construction and the backlog of the court system, but Sindh is supposed to have a specialised court system to deal with the issue. But because such courts would adversely affect some of the country’s richest and most powerful people, successive PPP and caretaker governments have conveniently forgotten to make them operational. The Sindh High Court’s decision ordering the provincial government to set up the special courts could prove to be hugely beneficial to residents of the province, especially Karachi, if it is actually followed up on.
The rampant practice of unauthorised construction is a major issue requiring concrete steps for redressal, but instead, almost every arm of government has been infiltrated by ‘sympathisers’ of property barons, and in some cases, the building czars themselves. The decade-plus delay in setting up special courts — required under legislation passed in 2013 — is among the reasons why enforcement of construction laws is often weak, and many noticeably illegal projects are allowed to go ahead until they reach the point where they have to be retroactively legalised to ‘protect innocent investors’. Unfortunately, this practice has caused significant environmental degradation and loss of green spaces due to encroachment on public land, while also contributing to the development of slums and other unsafe areas. Every few months, we see unfortunate cases of fatalities in incidents that can be attributed to illegal construction.
Setting up specialised construction courts would, among other things, make it harder for builders to get indefinite stays that allow them to get to the point where retroactive legalisation can be considered a justifiable option. Conversely, specialised courts may also help ensure that certain difficult decisions are better thought through — the legally-sound but inhumane practice of clearing slum residents and homeless people should be tied, at a minimum, to forcing governments to live up to their obligations to provide affordable housing and other related benefits.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 18th, 2024.
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