SC resumes hearings on Karachi’s civic issues from today

KARACHI: The Supreme Court is set to hear several important cases from Monday (today) regarding illegal and unauthorised constructions, encroachments on amenity plots, conversion of residential and amenity land into commercial spaces in the provincial metropolis.

A three-judge SC bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed and comprising Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan and Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed will take up the cases at the apex court’s Karachi registry from Monday to Friday.

SC officials had already issued notices to departments and officials concerned.

The matters about the Gujjar and Orangi nullahs, Karachi Circular Railway, Kidney Hill Park, restoration of Aladdin Park and the show-cause notices earlier issued to the South City and Ziauddin hospitals, located in Clifton, for allegedly running their health facilities on land meant for amenity purposes are also scheduled to be taken up by the apex court.

The applications about water issues in Defence, encroachments over drainage of Haji Limo Goth in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, encroachments at government lands in Jacobabad and a matter regarding land for a parking space at the Sindh High Court Karachi are also listed in the cause list issued by the deputy registrar of the SC Karachi registry.

The issues to be taken up by the court include construction of a building, Com 3 Mall, adjacent to the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Park in Clifton, case of the YMCA ground, illegal constructions on Kashmir Road, encroachments in Safari Park, encroachments on the land of Pakistan Railways, Tejori Heights Tower allegedly constructed on railways land near Gilani station in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, illegal constructions in Sindhi Muslim Cooperative Housing Society, construction of an 18-storey building near police headquarters in Garden and illegal conversion of plots from residential to commercial in Block 4 Clifton.

During the week, the SC would also hear a matter regarding fatal accidents resulting from electrocution in the service territory of the Karachi-Electric and dozens of applications filed against encroachments on parks, amenity plots and other public spaces in different parts of the provincial metropolis.