KARACHI: The Supreme Court has directed the Pakistan Railways to revive the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) within six months and asked the federal secretary for finance to ensure that there was no obstruction in release of funds to the railways to accomplish the project.

The three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, Justice Faisal Arab and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah was informed that the PR would revive the KCR at an estimated cost of around Rs6 billion within the stipulated period.

The bench had heard the matter on March 6 and issued its detailed order on Thursday.

It stated that the attorney general, advocate general, railways secretary, Sindh chief secretary and other federal and provincial officials had made a presentation whether to revive the KCR as it existed before its closure with the other option being that of including the KCR in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) with an altogether new and modern infrastructure.

“Ultimately this court has come to the conclusion that the first option is best option in that the secretary Pakistan Railways has assured the revival of KCR as it existed before its closure within the timeline as already given by this court vide its order dated 20.02.2020 that is six months time,” the bench in its order said.

Dissenting note suggests regularisation of a building instead of its demolition

However, the judgement said that the PR might continue its deliberation of planning to upgrade the KCR through CPEC and on approval of such upgrade, the same be undertaken by the railways, but without obstructing the already functioning KCR.

The attorney general said the federal government would ensure that no obstruction or delay was caused by any department in the KCR revival.

The railways secretary said that there would be around 24 level crossings, which would cause serious road traffic hazard, and the Sindh government in consultation with the railways would address this issue and make a plan to build underpasses and overhead bridges for smooth flow of road traffic.

The chief secretary and other officials of the provincial government made a categorical statement that the Sindh government would cooperate in every respect with the railways in reviving the KCR.

The bench directed the Sindh government that necessary infrastructure of underpasses and overhead bridges at the level crossings immediately be made besides ensuring that the KCR was not obstructed in its operation because of road traffic.

The bench also asked the railways secretary and the Sindh chief secretary to give their respective reports on the revival of the KCR and the achievements made on it on March 26.

It further directed the railways secretary, provincial chief secretary, commissioner of Karachi, attorney general and advocate general to ensure their presence at the next hearing.

Dissenting note in building case

The bench had also dismissed on March 6 a review application against its earlier order to demolish an under-construction building adjacent to an amusement park in Gulshan-i-Iqbal.

Earlier, the apex court had declared the lease of a two-acre plot, located on Rashid Minhas Road, illegal and directed the authorities concerned to demolish the under-construction residential-cum-commercial multistorey Royal Park building.

However, Justice Shah dissented with the majority decision and in his dissenting note said that the building in question required regularisation instead of demolition.

Justice Shah observed that in its review application, the applicant said he was ready and willing to pay the loss caused to the revenue while in another application allottees of the same under-construction building claiming to have paid a substantial amount against booking of flats sought review and direction against the builder to pay them compensation.

“In the circumstances, when the lessee has come forward to remove the only flaw by making good the loss sustained by the government of Sindh then the demolition of the project especially where there are more than 400 allottees in the flat site, in my opinion, could not be justified. The other important aspect is hundreds of allottees who claim to be bona fide purchasers of valuable consideration and had booked the plots after due diligence as there was a lease in favour of the lessee and all necessary permissions were granted by the Sindh Building Control Authority and all relevant quarters for carrying on constructions. Therefore, they could not be penalised on account of some underhand deal between the government of Sindh and the lessee,” he further said.

While referring to the Bahria Town Karachi and Grand Hyatt Tower Islamabad cases, Justice Shah said that the instant case being similar required regularisation instead of demolition.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2020