However, KBCA regulations already require a given amount of parking space in every high-rise building, and a large number of these buildings fulfilled the parking requirements at the design and even construction stages. Yet there is no shortage of instances when, after completion, the builders refused to hand parking space over to residents and instead sold it to other establishments or used it for purposes other than parking.

Sources pointed out that not only have private citizens purchased such illegally converted parking spaces, even the government has been known to follow suit. As an example, they referred to a government office that until recently, operated from the first floor parking area of a high-rise building on Tariq Road.

In such instances, KBCA officials, who are responsible for ensuring that buildings are constructed according to the approved plan and that purchasers are given the entire space promised by the builders, have looked the other way.

Meanwhile, the residents bear the brunt of such manoeuvrings. There are numerous instances in Garden and other areas where builders violated building plans and constructed and then sold illegal floors in high-rise buildings. Residents and civil society organisations had no option but to approach the courts which, after lengthy legal processes, ordered the demolition of the illegally-constructed floors. By that time, however, these spaces had usually been occupied by seemingly innocent parties claiming ignorance about their property’s illegal status and leading to further complications, said Dawn’s sources.

The proposed policy to allow additional floors as parking and incentive will come as a windfall for unscrupulous builders willing to sell off the extra space, commented the sources. Furthermore, it may become difficult to demolish such illegally-constructed parking spaces since their usage could be converted from parking to residential or commercial, they said. It cannot be ruled out that an official or politician may exercise his discretionary power under the guise of ‘public interest’ to regularise such misuse.

Sources pointed out that a former chief controller of buildings and some of his subordinate officials are currently being tried by an anti-corruption court for allowing the conversion of parking space into shops in a plaza near the M.A. Jinnah Road and Garden Road intersection.

The only way drivers and pedestrians could co-exist in peace, they added, was if mandatory parking spaces already available in high-rise buildings were not misused, all encroachments were removed from the roads and traffic rules were strictly followed.

Despite repeated attempts by Dawn, KBCA chief Rauf Farooqui could not be contacted for comments.

However, a senior KBCA official confessed on the condition of anonymity that there were a large number of cases where car-parking floors had been misused. Nevertheless, he maintained, such malpractice would not be allowed this time. Asked about the few buildings where illegally-utilised parking space was recovered, he informed Dawn that most of these spaces were still not being used because of security or other reasons. He added that efforts were under way to prepare a policy in this regard.