Another Nasla in the making

The builders’ mafia is at again! Merely a few months after the Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered the demolition of Nasla Tower at Shahrah-e-Faisal for encroaching a service road, another multi-storied tower is being constructed in the city by allegedly encroaching a service lane off the busy Rashid Minhas Road, right under the gaze of the officials of civic agencies who are duty-bound to take action against such ‘illegal’ constructions.

Munium Zafar Khan, a resident of Federal B Area Block 21 – where the Aero Iconic Tower is being constructed on a service road, has recently filed a petition in the Sindh High Court, praying it to stop the builder from constructing the tower and order immediate demolition of whatever structure of the building raised so far.

The documents submitted with the petition show that commercial plot No. LA-1/A-71, measuring 1543 square yards, carved out from a larger plot bearing the same number, was leased to messrs Muhammad Waqas Ansar, Muhammad Yousuf, Muhammad Farhan and Ubaidul Haq – who have shares of 40 percent, 18 percent, 30 percent and 12 percent respectively – for a sum of Rs 6.695 million on November 30, 2017.

The larger plot No. LA-1/A-71, measuring 2427.96 square yards, was originally owned by National Rubber and Plastic Industry Limited. In December 2000, the plot was allotted to one Miss Nadia, However, the allotment order issued on the letter-head of the National Rubber and Plastic Industry Limited did not show how the plot was allotted to Nadia.

The short allotment order only mentions that ‘the land has been allotted on the usual terms and conditions as specified by the KDA.’

Nadia then applied for subdivision of the plot and her application for dividing the larger plot into two was approved by Revenue Group of Offices of Land Management Department of the then City District Government on August 11, 2007.

The lager plot was divided into plots of different sizes. The one measuring 1427.96 square yards was allotted the number LA-1/A-71 while the second plot, measuring 1000.6 square yards, was  assigned the number LA-1/A-71-1.

The larger of the two sub-divided plots, bearing number LA-1/A-71, is shown to have been transferred to Muhammad Waqas Ansar, Muhammad Yousuf, Muhammad Farhan and Ubaidul Haq by Nadia on May 3, 2017 under some unspecified arrangements, the details of which have not been provided in the transfer order. The transfer order bears the photographs of the four transferees but does not have the photo of Nadia who transferred the plot.

Interestingly, the area of the plot which was mentioned in the subdivision order as 1427.96 square yards, grew by 115.04 square yards and became 1543 square yards in the transfer order issued by Commercial Cell of the Land Management Department of Karachi Development Authority.

The Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) in November 2019 approved the building plan on the plot, consisting of basement plus ground floor (shops) plus first to third floor (parking) plus fourth floor (flats and recreation) plus fifth to seventeenth floor (flats). Besides SBCA, six institutions including Town Planning Department, Civil Aviation Authority, Pakistan Air Force, Sui Southern Gas Company, K-Electric and Karachi Water and Sewerage Board have also issued NOCs in favour of the owner, architect and builder (Aero Builders and Developers).

The petitioner challenged the construction of the Aero Iconic Tower on grounds that the status of the plot, where the building is being raised, is commercial but its status has been changed to commercial-cum-residential by the owners and builder themselves, without the approval of the concerned authorities. Also, the petitioner alleges that a portion of service road has been encroached upon by the owners and builder besides some land of the adjacent public park.

In the rejoinder to a stay application moved by the petitioner, the builders and owners provided some promotional material of the project, confirming that the project is a commercial- cum-residential one.

The petitioner has also provided a copy of the map of the KDA’s master plan, claiming that the project has encroached upon about half of the service road.

The petitioner claims that in the past, the area people had complained about the setting up of the project’s booking office in the encroached area of the adjacent park to concerned authorities who took immediate action and removed the booking office.

The petitioner, Zafar, hopes that following the order of the Supreme Court in the Nasla Tower case, he will be able to convince the court to issue an appropriate order against the violations of law being committed in construction of the Aero Iconic Tower. He believes that a timely action by the court could save the hard earned money of all those people who have booked shops and flats in the tower.