The bench, headed by Justice Nazar Akbar, asked the regulatory bodies as well as the private builders to file their comments by December 22.
The notices were issued on a lawsuit filed by a group of 14 tenants of the Hussain D'Silva Park Complex, where the project is now being constructed.
Former KMC administrator Fahim Zaman Khan and others took the cabinet division secretary, the provincial chief secretary, Director-General of the provincial environmental protection agency, KMC administrator, SBCA's director-general, Sindh Public Procurement Authority, Bahria Town Private Limited and Galaxy Constructions Private Limited to court over the project.
The plaintiffs said that they were tenants of the complex, which was purchased by Galaxy Constructions Private Limited. The buyer later sought an ejectment order, saying that it wanted to re-construct flats after demolishing the existing ones. The builder assured the Supreme Court (SC) that new flats would be constructed, where tenants would be given space.
On October 27, 1992 the SC bench modified its order to say that the builder would construct the flats within two years from February 1992, when the tenants gave physical possession of their homes. "The pledge made to the tenants was never fulfilled," alleged the petitioners.
They informed the court that the total area of the complex was 9,436 square yards. Apparently, the additional land under the project comes from encroachments on another adjacent plot measuring 4,050 sq yards granted by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation to Ram Krishna Mission on a temporary occupation lease in 1944.
A missionary school for the Bheel community was being run by the mission on the land. Later, a man identified as Ali Haider Awan, claimed to have purchased the land from Ram Krishna Mission's owner, Pershostamdas, for Rs1,500 only in 1946.
Plaintiff Fahim Zaman said that when he was administrator of the KMC, he had ordered cancellation and withdrawal of challans issued to Ali Haider Awan.
He alleged that the Bahria project includes an additional area of 1,560 sq yards, where the KMC had originally planned to construct a road between Hussain D'Silva Park Complex and Ram Krishna Mission School. The project further includes 1,000 sq yards land of park given by the KMC to it in sheer violation of Land Rules of 1975 and the Sindh Local Government Ordinance 2001.
The court was pleaded to declare that the plaintiffs were entitled to be put in possession in Block-A of Clifton, where these flats were located, in the light of the apex court's judgment.
The plaintiffs also sought a permanent injunction against the ongoing construction of the project and order the authorities concerned to revert back all the lands meant for amenity purposes.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 9th, 2014.
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