Hitting back?: SHC stays demolition of PTI leader’s house

Arif Alvi says he is being harassed for protest against Bilawal House’s encroachments.

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) restrained the Sindh Building Control Authority from demolishing the structure of a residential premises in Clifton, which belongs to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf lawmaker, Arif Alvi.

Justice Hasan Azhar Rizvi, who headed the single bench, also issued notice to the municipal authorities to file their comments by January 21 in this regard.

Alvi had instituted a lawsuit, seeking a permanent injunction against the proposed demolition of his bungalow and also claimed damages worth Rs50 million from the SBCA director-general and Karachi administrator for tarnishing his reputation.



Lawyer Saadat Yar Khan informed the court that his client, who is an elected member of the National Assembly from the city’s NA-250 constituency, had purchased a sub-divided plot No. D-32, located in Block-4, Scheme 5, Clifton, through a conveyance deed executed on December 12, 2009.

He said that a sale deed, worth Rs53,300,000 was executed, which included payment of other requisite municipal charges. The petitioner had demolished the dilapidated bungalow’s building with the civic authorities’ permission and obtained a revised building plan. In the revised plan, the plot’s area was mentioned at 533.33 square yards while it is originally 500 square yards, therefore, the relevant officers were requested to correct the same in the documents.

“While the construction is in its final stages and the process of correction in the documents was underway, the defendant [SBCA] issued a notice of demolition of some of the structures within three days, expiring on January 3,” the lawyer pointed out.

He claimed that the demolition letter was based on malafide intentions as the plaintiff claimed that the officers had issued the letter on the behest of a political bigwig to avenge the December 29 incident when the PTI leader had sought the implementation of the Sindh High Court’s decision to remove obstacles from the main road in the NA-250 constituency.

The lawyer alleged that the demolition letter was aimed to harass the plaintiff and cause him financial losses and also tarnish his reputation. “Such a scandalous notice and irresponsible attitude by the defendant [SCBA] has caused tremendous mental torture, pain and agony to the plaintiff besides loses to his business,” argued the lawyer.

He pleaded to the court to declare the area of the plaintiff’s subject property be mentioned as 500 square yards in the documents. He also sought a permanent injunction against the defendants, their employees and agents to restrain them from demolishing the construction. Apart from this, the PTI lawmaker also urged to order the defendant authorities to pay him Rs50 million in damages for tarnishing his reputation.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 7^th, 2014.