DELHI: Neither side can give the other what it wants. Very wisely, the inscrutable prime minister of India, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and General Pervez Musharraf have decided not to slam shut the door but to meet again. To dissipate rancour of fifty-four years standing requires far more time than fifty-four hours.

Pakistan should make no mistake in its perception. The other side is light years ahead of it in too many ways. For instance, take the lush green Delhi which, once ranked amongst the topmost highly polluted cities of the world, is now smoke and smog and diesel-petrol fume free, thanks to the Supreme Court of India, and the Delhi administration which has implemented its order.

Karachi: Back to its on-going strife, sectarian and other murders, pollution, traffic snarls, fading diminishing greenery, and the headlines of this newspaper's Metropolitan section which told us last week - 'Epidemics feared as flies invade Karachi', 'Centres refuse dialysis for want of funds' (the government has still to denationalize the Kidney Centre erroneously nationalized), and 'Regularization to destroy town planning'.

The governor of Sindh and his cabinet have once more arisen and approved the passing of a resolution that will destroy whatever has been left intact in the overtly highly illegally overbuilt city of Karachi. Many people will recall how the building mafia in 1999 had approached Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz and misled him into believing that industries and employment would miraculously be revived were all the illegal buildings in Karachi to be regularized. The then governor, Air Marshal Azim Daudpota, was also highly elated with the mafia's fairy story. However, when the true position was explained to both Aziz and Daudpota they realized they had been duped.

In came Mohammadmian Soomro as Sindh governor, and he and his minister of housing and town planning, Dewan Yousuf, were once again revved up by the builders into believing that the regularization of all illegally constructed buildings was the answer to all Karachi's ills, and yet another committee was formed to examine the matter.

The Tasneem Siddiqui committee was asked to submit its report to the governor, which it has done. On July 24 of this year, Governor Soomro and his cabinet approved the passing of the Sindh Building Control (Amendment 2001) Ordinance sanctifying a building policy for the beleaguered city of Karachi that is supposed to jump-start the urban economy and provide a boost to the 'Programme for the Economic Revival of Karachi' (PERK). Every citizen can now become a legal "illegal and prosperous builder."

The proposed liberal ordinance allows one, within the next 12 months, to build a multi-storeyed commercial building on even a public park if one does not: use the structure for any environmentally degrading or hazardous activity; cater to the services sector to transport (whatever that means); convert parking spaces to other use; violate a road-widening cut-line reservation or property line; or, erect a seismically unstable structure.

One can, however: cover the entire compulsory open spaces all around (meant for the privacy of neighbours, sunlight and ventilation, access for emergency fire/ambulance vehicles, running of utility services, etc); construct unlimited excess built-up area, with unlimited additional floors; convert an amenity park plot into a commercial plot; not provide visibility chamfers on corner plots; not provide NOCs from the KESC, KWSB, and SSGCL; contravene the Civil Aviation Authority's 'flying gap' limitation; construct higher than the podium of Mohammad Ali Jinnah's mazar (within the prohibited 3/4th mile radius); and commit many other violations of the building regulations.

All one has to do is pay Rs. 300 per square foot (sft) of violation space as penalty charges. One can then sell the 'regularized' commercial space at a profit of over Rs. 1,300 per sft for offices and Rs. 19,000 per sft for shops.

The Tasneem Siddiqui committee report specifically states that land-use violations would not be regularized, but the cabinet-approved ordinance allows the condonation of exactly such violations. It seems of no consequence that this conversion cannot be done under the SBCO ordinance as it contravenes multiple town-planning laws and plot-lease covenants.

On October 5, 1999, the KDA governing body wisely cautioned the public through a KBCA notice published in newspapers of record that numerous unauthorized structures had been constructed in Karachi under the cover of court orders, and that the law did not permit the 'regularization' of such blatantly illegal and dangerous buildings. The KDA/KBCA went on to correctly clarify that "condonation is only possible when the deviations from the approved plans are still within the building regulations."

In an about-face, on May 3,2001, without debate the KDA governing body pushed through the Tasneem Siddiqui committee report recommending virtually blanket 'regularization'. Two public representatives, ex-Senator Syed Mazher Ali (himself a builder and founder-member of ABAD) and I, both present at the meeting, dissented strongly. I insisted that my detailed objection be attached to the report, along with my following note of caution: "These documents, without any specific recommendation of the GB, should confuse the governor, as they should any other reasonable man. It is not fair to throw the ball in the governor's court and make him take a wrong decision for which he will be held responsible, and for which he would have to face an inquiry which any subsequent government will hold. He would have to suffer the consequences, presuming that he would then be in Pakistan, not having absconded."

This 'regularization' policy has the whole-hearted support of businessman/builder-turned-vice-chairman of the Economic Development Council of Sindh, Shahid Firoz, who is committed to making Karachi "the most livable city in South Asia by 2007." Shahid spouts a smooth line of patter while explaining the details of his grandiose plans. He has been motivated by the builders of 'Fortune Towers', 'Saima Trade Towers', 'Business Avenue', 'Clifton Shopping Galleria', and numerous other illegal structures on Sharea Faisal who explain how advantageous it would be to the government of Sindh if illegalities were to be condoned -- at a price.

All, however, is not lost. The High Court of Sindh is still acting as the guardian of the 'right to life' of the citizens and is delivering on issues brought to its judicial notice. Two cases in the High Court involving the built environment of Karachi have fared well over the past fortnight.

In the 'Karachi Playhouse' petition challenging a mammoth commercial structure being constructed on an amenity/public building plot reserved for a theatre at Teen Talwar, the division bench recognized the prima facie validity of the citizens' petition that Clifton Cantonment Board's building regulations could not override the original zoning/town planning of the KDA Kahkashan Scheme.

In the 'Saima Trade Towers' case, dealing with a grossly over-built structure on I. I. Chundrigar Road, the division bench placed a liberal interpretation on the concept of locus standi while recognizing that "certain individuals or groups have over the years proved their bona fides for championing the cause connected with certain aspects of the city." The court rejected the stand of the builders/interveners that such public interest cases could be heard only in the Supreme Court, and admitted the petition.

The lethal ordinance is still in the making with the law department of the Sindh government. Governor Soomro should take a second look. How much excess baggage can President General Pervez Musharraf carry?