A division bench of the High Court of Sindh (SHC) comprising Chief Justice Musheer Alam and Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi, hearing a number of identical petitions on intercity bus terminals in different parts of Karachi, particularly the cantonment areas, ordered notices to be issued to the (navy) commander of Karachi for an unspecified date.
The bench also ordered the advocate general of Sindh to hold a meeting of all stakeholders and decision-makers at his office within the next three days to decide on the inter-city bus terminal at a spot earmarked by the City District Government Karachi in Deh Bajar Bhatti. Earlier on, the petitioners, including Qazi Athar Ali Advocate, Islam Hussain advocate, a former councillor from Jacob Lines Mehfooz-un Nabi Khan and others, informed the bench that despite repeated instructions and orders by the court no progress has been made on the construction of an inter-city bus terminal. The petitioners and other residents faced the twin menace of noise and air pollution in addition to the dangerous movement of extra-long vehicles. There was the added nuisance of maintenance and mechanical work that goes on around the clock.
The city government’s lawyer Manzoor Ahmed said that they had marked out the plot but still did not have official possession of the land. It was pointed out to the court that most of the alleged illegal activities take place in areas under the cantonment boards. It was upon this that the bench ordered notices to be issued to the Commander of Karachi. The bench adjourned the hearing while ordering the authorities concerned to decide the issue within the next ten days or appear before the court in person if they failed to.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 12th, 2011.
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