KARACHI: The Supreme Court on Monday ordered the Anti-Corruption Establishment to probe officials who approved the building plan for Nasla Tower as it directed the provincial government to remove Karachi administrator Barrister Murtaza Wahab before withdrawing the order within hours after the official tendered “unconditional apology”.
Nasla Tower is a 15-storey residential building which the top court in October directed to demolish for encroaching on the land reserved for a service road.
The order was issued by a two-judge bench — comprising Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed — during a hearing pertaining to unauthorised and illegal construction, encroachments of amenity plots, conversion of residential properties into commercial ones and the issue of two private hospitals allegedly running their health facilities on amenity plots at the Karachi registry of the Supreme Court.
During the proceeding, an angry chief justice ordered Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah to choose an “impartial and competent” person to replace Wahab.
The directive came after Wahab — finding himself on the receiving end of flak — questioned whether the PPP “should leave the government” since “major observations” were made about the province by the court.
“Silence yourself, mister, what are you saying? Do not do politics here,” Justice Ahmed reprimanded Wahab. “Get out [from here]. We will remove you right now,” he said to him.
On the matter of demolition of the residential unit, the bench order the Deputy Inspector General (West) to take immediate action against the officials who approved the building plan and present a report.
The court also ordered to seize the possession of the 780-square-yards land the building stands on. It also directed the Sindh High Court (SHC) to take possession of the land in question and stop its potential sale.
The Supreme Court had initially directed for the demolition of the building for encroaching on the land meant for a service road on June 16. But the order fell victim to dilly-dallying.
Today, expressing his annoyance over the slow pace of demolition work, the chief justice asked: “Such a building is torn down within one hour in the world. What is taking you people so long?”
At this, Karachi Commissioner Iqbal Memon informed the court over 400 workers have been working on the unit, and have so far demolished five floors. He added the building’s internal structure had been demolished.
The chief justice then questioned the commissioner about mentioning that the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) obstructed the demolition work in a report that he submitted to the apex court.
Justice Amin said if anyone was interfering then it would amount to contempt of court. “We did not obstruct [the demolishing process]. I challenge the report,” the SBCA chief said.
The chief justice said he was serving a contempt notice on the agency’s chief and told him to respond to it. “According to the report, the SBCA also demanded bribe from the contractor,” he noted.
The court directed the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) director general to register a case against the SBCA chief and submit a report after conducting legal proceedings and investigation.
The city commissioner was also directed to use all government resources and complete Nasla Tower’s demolition within a week.
NASLA TOWER CASE
In a previous judgement on the legality of the ownership of the land, the court had said: “It is claimed that around 1957, the main road that was proposed to be 280 feet wide was realigned and as a result, its width was reduced to 240 feet and the excess 40 feet was allotted to SMCHS through a letter by the chief commissioner in December 1957.”
It further noted the additional area was claimed to have been allotted by SMCHS to one Mustafai Begum and the area of the plot was allegedly increased from 780 square yards to 1,044 square yards and the additional area was neither incorporated in the original/amended lease nor in any subsequent lease deed.
The present owner ultimately acquired it by way of a conveyance deed executed in 2015 and initially, the plot in question was meant for residential purposes, but in 2004 the then city government through a resolution allowed conversion of all residential plots on Sharea Faisal for commercial use and in 2007 the plot was converted from residential to commercial use, it added.
The owners of the tower claimed that the additional area was allotted by SMCHS through a resolution in 2010 and the same came to be included in the total area of the plot while the mukhtiarkar in his report said that SMCHS had illegally increased the size of the plot by allotting the land reserved for the service road, the order said.
