COULD it have happened in the Karachi of fifty years ago? A man fancies himself as a lion-tamer. He takes over the side road running besides his house, plus the sidewalk in front of it, builds rickety cages made from some sort of cheap metal, and installs in them a couple of unfortunate lions. And this on a main boulevard, the Khayaban-e-Saadi (plot F12 Block 5 Kehkashan Scheme 5), within shouting distance of a large school, spreading fear and unrest in the neighbourhood.

Fifty years ago in Karachi, could any man have built on a designated residential plot a truly horrendous commercial complex, with a cheap and tawdry-looking glass facade, in the most deplorable of tastes, and built it so that it protrudes right on to one of the main thoroughfares of this city. Could he, at the same time, have misappropriated the road that runs along one side of his disgusting construction, blocked it to traffic, and raised it to the level of the building's plinth?

No, of course not. It was different in those days. There was law, there was order. Rules and regulations were made to be honoured, not violated. No man would even have dreamt of doing either of the above, let alone actually physically attempting to. In the event that anyone had been sufficiently criminal-minded, or mentally deficient, to have tried, the city authorities would have stopped him within minutes.

Now that the Glass Towers case has been heard and decided by the apex court, the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and the nightmare is over for us few who have fought this monstrosity for the past four years, one is free to write about it for the people, even though they were largely sceptical and unhelpful, critical but unwilling to contribute to the fight in any way.

A portion of paragraph (f) of the order issued by the governor of Sindh in November 1996 dissolving the Sindh Assembly reads: "There is also corruption in the grant of permissions for highrise buildings, for example the case of Glass Towers on the main Clifton Road which has caused obstruction to the traffic and is in violation of the principles of town planning. The Karachi Development Authority is a nest of corruption and inefficiency...."The few who have been in and out of court fighting the Glass Tower irregularities finally had their appeal heard last week by a five-member bench of the Supreme Court (Chief Justice Ajmal Mian, Justices Mohammad Bashir Jehangiri, Mamoon Kazi, Shaikh Riaz Ahmad, Chaudhry Mohammad Arif). On May 3, the bench ordered that the builders "shall remove the portion of the structure of Glass Towers constructed along and facing the Clifton Road which may obstruct the future expansion of the road to the proposed width of 150 feet, as ordered by the learned Division Bench of the High Court, within a period of three months from today [May 3, 1999] failing which the official respondents shall carry out the demolition work immediately on the expiry of the above period of three months, at the cost of the builder with police aid, if necessary." It also ordered that the remainder of the building will stand in accordance with the approved plan.

Needless to say, there are many irregularities in the structure that will remain after the demolition process is completed, numerous facets that are not in accordance with the approved plan.

Builder Hashim's main hope now is that within the specified three months, governor's rule will somehow disappear, back will come some sort of corrupt government made up of politicos on the make, and he will manage to buy his way out of the demolition problem. He still get s good advice from the man who initially approved the plan of Glass Towers, obstruction and all, Rauf Akhtar Faruqui, former Chief Controller of Buildings of KBCA-KMC.

Faruqui was one of the 29 officers of the Building Control Authority who were suspended by Abdullah Shah, the PPP chief minister of Sindh (to be suspended by him a man had to be really beyond the pale). His suspension was upheld in the inquiry report prepared by Abdullah Shah's secretary of local government, Nur Ahmad Shah. Faruqui remained out of the building world until (hold on to your hats) governor's rule was imposed in Sindh last year when the secretary, housing and town planning Faisal Saud backed by chief secretary Salik Nazir, came to Faruqui's rescue and had him appointed as DG of the Malir Development Authority. As unbelievable as this may be, it is a fact. So much for governor's rule!

The same Supreme Court Bench that issued the Glass Towers demolition order has saved a people's park in Karachi. The Costa Livina case dates back to 1990, to the first PPP regime. Asif Zardari and his crony Dr Zulfikar Mirza (now absconding) aided by other cronies, managed to obtain permission to build a highrise commercial-cum-residential complex within the bounds of the Jehangir Kothari Clifton Park (renamed Bagh-e-Ibn-Qasim). The plot in the park upon which they were allowed to build their illegal structure had originally been designated for the construction of a tower with a revolving restaurant atop, similar to the towers built in parks in Toronto, Hamburg and other cities.

People's parks are inviolable; they cannot be desecrated by commercial constructions. The politicians involved manipulated approval for their commercial venture on the plea that they would install a revolving restaurant on the top of the building. Many of us in the know realized that this would never happen. We knew all about the building built by Zardari opposite the Services Club on Victoria Road. When he applied for permission and submitted his plans he duped the authorities into believing that the top two floors would be used for car-parking and that cars would be taken up in elevators. No such thing ever happened, as all who pass the Trade Centre can clearly see.

The building of the Costa Livina complex was opposed by one KDA officer, Khalid Mukhtar. He was threatened by the politicians after writing his dissenting note and informed that he would be hounded out of his job. The citizens went to court . Construction started, then it was stopped by the next regime, started again, stopped again and so it went on. During the second PPP round, Asif Zardari's cohorts succeeded not only in getting Mukhtar out of his job, but also out of the country. Luckily, he is an honest well-qualified man and is doing far better in the US than he would ever have done here.

Costa Livina is now a half-built structure, a shell of some six storeys. The Supreme Court ordered on May 3 that this structure will be demolished and that the builders concerned will submit a new plan for the construction of a tower and restaurant only, a construction that will be purely for the enjoyment of the people, rather than a money-making machine for the unscrupulous greedy, self-appointed, freely and fairly elected people's representatives.

The degradation on all fronts has been intense. At one time the citizens had to fight unscruplous builders and corrupt officials, and lawyers with ethics and self-respect refused to represent these despoilers. Now a lawyer mafia has arisen. When one tries to reason with some of the legal men one knows and ask them what it is that motivates them to demean themselves, their lame excuse is that even mass murderers are entitled to a defence. The dangerous trend is that many of the young lawyers, for the right price, "guarantee" success and manipulate their way through their aiders and abettors in the court s.

The plus side is that there are a few left who refuse, no matter what price is offered, to sell themselves down the dirty drain. The foremost of these is Barrister Mohammed Gilbert Naim-ur-Rahman, who has fought his way relentlessly through case after case, opposing builder after builder, more often than not charging no fee. He has now saved a road and a park. Another man who has given of his professional skill and time, to his financial detriment, and has been of immense help to those who have fought these cases is Engineer Roland deSouza of SHEHRI. Those who will, must press on. The city is still worth saving.