KARACHI, Sept 23: The Sindh High Court ordered on Tuesday the attachment of a residential-cum-commercial complex built over a 4,000-square-yard plot between Gulshan-i-Iqbal and Gulistan-i-Jauhar.
Several petitions were moved by residents of the area alleging inaction by the Karachi Building Control Authority and the Faisal Cantonment Board, which has within its purview 30 per cent of the premises known as ‘Moon Garden’. The KBCA denied the allegation and said it had been warning and issuing notices to the builder-developer time and again. The authority supported the petitioners’ contention that the building had been raised in gross violation of the law, rules and sanctioned plan. The builder could not take shelter behind the cantonment board’s approval as 70 per cent of the offending complex was situated within the remit of the KBCA.
A division bench comprising Justices Munib Ahmed Khan and Rana Mohammad Shamim appointed Advocate Sohail Hameed as the commissioner for inspection. The lawyer visited the site in the presence of the petitioners, the respondents, the KBCA officials and their counsel. He confirmed that the builder had indulged in gross violations. Meanwhile, the Pakistan Railway Employee Co-operative Housing Society challenged the builder’s title and claimed that the land was allotted to it.
KBCA counsel Shahid Jamil Khan informed the bench that the builder had approval for a basement, a ground floor for shops and four residential floors. He was allowed to construct 95 shops and 128 flats. However, he raised the number of residential floors from four to nine and built 189 flats instead of 128. The number of shops was unlawfully raised from 95 to 160.
The bench, which had earlier restrained the builder-developer from raising further construction and from creating third party interest, ordered the attachment of the entire premises on Tuesday.
Office closed
The bench also ordered closure of a developer’s office in a residential bungalow in Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Society. The 1,400-square-yard plot (No 18/A) is situated in an exclusively residential area on the main Fatima Jinnah Road. The society’s counsel, Amir Aziz Khan, submitted that commercial activity in a residential neighbourhood caused public and private nuisance. Restraining the respondent, M/s Associated Engineering Consultants, the bench warned that their property would be sealed if they failed to enter appearance on the next date of hearing.
Order reserved
Another bench consisting of Justices Khilji Arif Hussain and Bin Yamin, meanwhile, reserved its order in several identical petitions moved by about 55 lawyers for posting as assistant and deputy district prosecutors and assistant and deputy prosecutors-general in Grades 17 and 18.
The petitioners submitted that they applied to the public prosecutors’ posts in response to an advertisement published by the provincial government. They were put to test by the Sindh Public Service Commission and were medically examined. They were even issued offer letters, in reply to which they signified their assent. The process was completed in March but they had not been posted so far.
Appearing for the petitioners, Advocates Anwar Mansoor Khan and Abdus Salam Memon rebutted the objections raised by a provincial law officer. They said the selection process was started much earlier then the induction of a caretaker regime in October 2007 and offer letters were issued after the caretakers had been replaced by the elected government. Even if there was a ban in place during the caretaker in regime, it could not apply to any recruitment or selection process conducted by the Sindh Public Service Commission. Above all, the additional prosecutors-general and district public prosecutors selected through the same process had already been employed in grade 19 and were performing their duties.
The bench noted that one additional prosecutor-general appeared before it in a case on Tuesday and reserved its judgment on the petitions.
PTCL rejoinder
The Pakistan Telecommunication Company put up a spirited defence in its comments on a petition alleging overcharging and inefficiency. It said petitioner Kaukab Iqbal was not a subscriber and that the petition was so devoid of reason that it should be dismissed summarily. The impugned ‘Pakistan Package’ had long been withdrawn and the petitioner had no subsisting cause of action. The local call rates had been decreased to Rs2 for a three-minute call. The PTCL also said that it was a commercial concern free to fix its rates to cover its expenses and earn a reasonable profit; that tariff was no part of the contract between the consumer and the company; and that no one else out of the 1.2 million telephone subscribers had come forward to complain against it. In any case, the petition involved disputed questions of fact and was not, therefore, maintainable, it said.Advocate Jawaid Ahmed Chhatari, the petitioner’s counsel, vehemently contested the averments made by the PTCL and the bench asked him to file a rejoinder.
Pre-arrest bail
The bench, meanwhile, confirmed the bail before arrest granted to Ms Biha Shah, an assistant in the MCB’s Safoora Goth branch, in the sum of Rs200,000. Advocate Shafqat Shah Masoomi argued that her name was not initially mentioned in the first information report registered by the Federal Investigations Agency’s banking cell. Ms Shah had been falsely implicated by her former husband, an officer in the State Bank. The former husband had been sued by Ms Shah for maintenance of their two sons and he was not only resisting the suit but also making threats to involve her in criminal cases. The cash recovered from her consisted of the sale proceeds of her car and advance rent she received for her flat.
PIDC plea dismissed
Another bench comprising Justices Mohammad Athar Saeed and Qamaruddin Bohra dismissed a petition moved by the Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation against imposition of property tax on PIDC House. According to a notification issued in 2001, relaxation was given if any commercial premises were occupies by a commercial concern for its own use. However, if the premises were let out to other concerns the value of the property was doubled. The corporation challenged the taxation formula.
Assistant Advocate-General Adnan Karim Memon submitted that the petitioner corporation had rented out eight offices to other commercial concerns. It owed the exchequer over Rs16.6 million in outstanding dues on account of property tax.
Bail for couple
Ghulam Shabbir and Saira Batool were freed on bail by the bench consisting of Justices K.A. Hussain and Bin Yamin. Advocate Abdul Jabbar Lakho argued that the two were involved in bogus cases first by Saira’s brothers and subsequently by a man who kept her in wrongful confinement at Shikarpur for about seven months at the behest of former nazim of Gambat as punishment for love match. The lawyer said Saira became pregnant from Miranshah, who raped her during the illegal confinement. She escaped from his custody on her own and returned to her husband, Ghulam Shabbir, in Karachi. He said cases against the couple should be quashed and a DNA test should be ordered to determine the paternity of the child so that the alleged guilt of her tormentor could be established.
Dear visitor, the comments section is undergoing an overhaul and will return soon.