Planning failure: Over 700 cases against faulty constructions pending in courts

Cases include everything from encroachment to failure to comply with building plans

KARACHI:

The saga over the eviction of Moon Gardens' residents unfolded last week but the controversial residential project is merely one of the 700 cases filed in various courts in Karachi.

There are over 700 cases of property disputes and faulty constructions that have been filed against the federal, provincial and local authorities, and private individuals. They include everything from encroachments on public and private land by the land grabbing mafia allegedly supported by government officials and political groups, to constructions contrary to the approved building plans.



According to data available on the Sindh High Court (SHC) website, 458 of these cases are pending at the high court's principal seat in Karachi where two benches are specifically assigned to deal with matters related to property disputes. These cases date as far back as 1993 and as recent as October 19 this year.

Around 300 cases against illegal dispossession have been filed in district courts across the city. Most of them hold the local government department, the officials of the anti-encroachment wing of the Sindh Building Control Authority and the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation as the main respondents.

"There are various cases alleging the builders of residential-cum-commercial projects, who have built the projects illegally on encroached lands," said a court official, who wished to remain anonymous, citing the example of Moon Gardens in Gulistan-e-Jauhar.

A week ago, the Sindh High Court judges had ordered their eviction, as the building was found to have illegally been built on the property originally owned by the Pakistan Railways Cooperative Housing Society. For days, the occupants of the 185 apartments in the project ran from government departments to courts in order to save their 'dream houses'.



This particular case, litigation was initiated in the SHC in 2006 but was awaiting a decision. The authorities only took the matter seriously recently when the judges served a show-cause notice to the provincial police chief to explain why he should be exempted from contempt of court for not obeying the orders passed back in April.

Who's litigating?

"There are two types of litigations: those filed by individuals and those by welfare organisations and government institutions themselves against institutions or private persons," the officer explained. Since a majority of individual litigants cannot bear the expenses of filing a case in SHC, 145 of the petitions have been filed by various NGOs that claim to be striving for the betterment of the city's infrastructure and environment.

"There are illegal constructions being carried out in almost every part of the city in every manner," said public interest litigant Rana Faizul Hasan in his petition against land grabbing.

Of his 50 petitions pending, many relate to illegal constructions. "The amenity plots are being illegal encroached and used for residential and commercial purposes with the support of the officials and influential individuals," he stated in another plea to remove encroachments from storm water drains in the city.

Quick disposal

Upon his restoration from deposition and subsequent elevation as then provincial chief justice, Justice Mushir Alam, had ordered quick disposal of all the cases pending since 2007. According to court officials, hundreds of the cases pending since then were heard as top priority and disposed of within the shortest possible time at the SHC.

The officials estimated that the petitions were still being filed that suggested that the authorities had yet to protect the public and private property from being encroached, illegal converted and built. "This year, 145 new petitions against the local government department and the Sindh Building Control Authority have been instituted at the principal seat till November," said the court clerk. The number has jumped from 61 instituted in 2014, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 21^th, 2015.