Commissioner ordered to commence Nasla Tower demolition at once

KARACHI: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Wednesday directed Commissioner Karachi to immediately commence the demolition of Nasla Tower located at the city’s Shahrah-e-Faisal and submit a report on the orders.

When a three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed assembled at the apex court’s Karachi Registry, the top judge inquired from the commissioner what he had so far done for the demolition of the Nasla Tower.

The commissioner submitted that he had provided the court with a report stating the control implosion of the building will cost Rs220 million which was a huge amount.

Read more: Residents of Karachi’s Nasla Tower left homeless, waiting for compensation

Justice Gulzar observed that the cost should not have been a concern for the commissioner when the court had ordered recovering the amount from the builder or by auctioning land.

“You should not be here. You should be in jail,” observed Justice Gulzar.

At this point, Advocate General Sindh Sulman Talibuddin intervened as Justice Gulzar started to dictate the order and sought pardon for the commissioner.

“We have given you clear orders about the demolition of Nasla Tower,” Justice Gulzar observed adding that the commissioner was also ordered to oversee the demolition of Tejori Tower.

“Go and do your work and give us a report by 2:00 pm,” the CJ ordered and directed the commissioner to leave immediately.

Read more: Supreme Court orders Nasla Tower’s demolition within 10 days

However, till the court’s rising the Commissioner had not appeared before it.

The Supreme Court on October 25 had directed the commissioner Karachi to demolish Nasla Tower, as it was constructed illegally, via a controlled blast. Earlier in September, the court had dismissed review petitions of the builders and allottees of the tower.

On June 16 this year the apex court had declared that the builder had encroached more land from the service road than the original 780 square yards he was allotted and had ordered to demolish the building.

CAA ordered to recover encroached land

Separately, the Civil Aviation Authority was directed to recover its land from the encroachers which had occupied about five acres of the land from that the authority had purchased from private persons.

An additional director of FIA apprised the bench that the Sindh Board of Revenue had illegally allotted five acres to Nabi Bux, who did not exist on record. Later the land was sold to other people on fake power of attorney of Nabi Bux.

The bench observed that CAA required no further proceedings for recovering the land it was given possession of after a joint survey with the Sindh Board of Revenue for construction of Jinnah International Terminal in 1993. The bench observed that the NA Class created by the Sindh Board of Revenue on surveyed land was illegal.

Read more: SC to decide about commercial use of land allotted for defence installations

The bench also ordered the CAA to immediately close a private club being run on the land it was allotted for the airport and ancillary activities.

A director of the CAA apprised the court that the club also serves as an accommodation for officers who visit Karachi from other stations for official work.

The bench observed that the activities of the club were illegal as it was giving membership to private citizens for a membership fee.

The director while agreeing with the observation of the court assured that the club would be immediately discontinued and the premises would be used for core functions of the authority.