Legalising unauthorised constructions: Minister, SCBA chief put on notice
Petitioner wants SHC to declare amnesty scheme void.
KARACHI:
The Sindh High Court put on notice all the respondents, including the Sindh local bodies minister and the chief of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SCBA), for January 11 in a petition challenging the legality of a two-year amnesty scheme notified by the SBCA, formerly the Karachi Building Control Authority.
A division bench comprising Justice Maqbool Baqar and Justice Imam Bux Baloch earlier heard the counsel for the petitioner NGO, the United Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (UHRCP).
Referring to a public notice in an Urdu daily newspaper, the petitioner maintained that Minister for Local Bodies Agha Siraj Durrani, exercising his powers under the provisions of the Sindh Building Control Ordinance of 1979 has allowed amendments in the Buildings and Town Planning Regulations of 2002, thus paving the way for legalising illegally constructed buildings.
The SBCA had on November 29 invited applications from the owners of thousands of illegally constructed buildings in Karachi, Sukkur and other cities of Sindh for regularisation.
The petitioner submitted that the SBCO/KBCA has always enjoyed unfettered powers to check violations of the building control rules and was responsible to check such illegal constructions but it failed to take any action against thousands of buildings constructed in Karachi alone in violation of the rules and regulations.
The new scheme, the petitioner said, would contribute to already rampant corruption in the former KBCA which has been extended to the entire of Sindh as the SBCA.
The amnesty scheme was to cover up the failure of SBCA officials who conveniently ignored the illegal structures built with impunity by the builder mafia, the UHRCP said.
The NGO appealed to the court to declare the amnesty scheme as well as any other method or move to give legal cover to the illegally constructed structures as void, ab initio for being in violation of Articles 116 and 128 of the constitution and restrain the SBCA from the regularisation of illegally constructed buildings till a decision is made in its petition.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 14th, 2011.
The Sindh High Court put on notice all the respondents, including the Sindh local bodies minister and the chief of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SCBA), for January 11 in a petition challenging the legality of a two-year amnesty scheme notified by the SBCA, formerly the Karachi Building Control Authority.
A division bench comprising Justice Maqbool Baqar and Justice Imam Bux Baloch earlier heard the counsel for the petitioner NGO, the United Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (UHRCP).
Referring to a public notice in an Urdu daily newspaper, the petitioner maintained that Minister for Local Bodies Agha Siraj Durrani, exercising his powers under the provisions of the Sindh Building Control Ordinance of 1979 has allowed amendments in the Buildings and Town Planning Regulations of 2002, thus paving the way for legalising illegally constructed buildings.
The SBCA had on November 29 invited applications from the owners of thousands of illegally constructed buildings in Karachi, Sukkur and other cities of Sindh for regularisation.
The petitioner submitted that the SBCO/KBCA has always enjoyed unfettered powers to check violations of the building control rules and was responsible to check such illegal constructions but it failed to take any action against thousands of buildings constructed in Karachi alone in violation of the rules and regulations.
The new scheme, the petitioner said, would contribute to already rampant corruption in the former KBCA which has been extended to the entire of Sindh as the SBCA.
The amnesty scheme was to cover up the failure of SBCA officials who conveniently ignored the illegal structures built with impunity by the builder mafia, the UHRCP said.
The NGO appealed to the court to declare the amnesty scheme as well as any other method or move to give legal cover to the illegally constructed structures as void, ab initio for being in violation of Articles 116 and 128 of the constitution and restrain the SBCA from the regularisation of illegally constructed buildings till a decision is made in its petition.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 14th, 2011.