The three-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Javed Iqbal and comprising Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali was hearing the case. After hearing the concerns of oil tanker owners, the court also directed the registrar of the Sindh High Court to visit the new parking site at Zulfiqarabad in Karachi and submit a separate report to the court within two weeks.
Sindh Advocate General Yousaf Laghari appeared before the court to present the City District Government Karachi’s stance while, Shafiq Usmani representated the Oil Tankers Association. Laghari informed the court that the city government had set aside 690 acres for the parking lot.
But Usmani told the court that the land was uneven and the government had not constructed the plot’s boundary wall. He said that the land was also not appropriate, as during the rains it became marshy and tankers would get in it. Justice Javed Iqbal observed that a cemented area was necessary for a parking site to avoid mud when it rains.
The bench was hearing a constitutional petition filed by Shugafta Bibi, a resident of Clifton Block 1, who prayed the Chief Justice of Pakistan to order the oil tanker terminal to be removed from her locality. She had initially sent a letter to the CJP, who had converted it into a constitutional petition.
The petitioner complained that the heavy oil tankers were parked on both sides of the main road in Clifton Block 1 and its surrounding area. Besides this, she said, a number of auto workshops had opened in the neighbourhood, making the lives of the residents miserable.
During the hearing of the cases at the Supreme Court Karachi registry on May 22 this year, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had ordered for the oil tanker parking to be shifted from Shireen Jinnah Colony to the Karachi Port Trust’s temporary parking lot. He had asked the city government to make the Zulfiqarabad plot fit for use in one month’s time, as it was collecting tax from people.
Following the directions of the CJP, appearing in court along with a provincial law officer, the Karachi Port Trust’s managing director had submitted that KPT was ready to provide an alternative plot of three acres for the oil tankers. However, the president of the Oil Tankers Association, Syed Ataullah, stated that land grabbers had illegally encroached on the land KPT was offering. He also submitted that the oil tankers were also engaged in supplying the Nato forces in Afghanistan.
The bench observed that illegal parking could not be allowed anywhere no matter who the oil tankers were supplying, Nato forces or others.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 24th, 2010.
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