Ghani directs SBCA to submit list of marriage halls

Minister for Local Government Saeed Ghani has directed the director general of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) to submit a comprehensive list of marriage halls in the city for scrutiny.

In an interview with The News on Sunday, Ghani said the list will be scrutinised to check which halls come in the legal framework and all halls constructed on amenity plots will be demolished.

He added that no demolition will take place till he orders, except for those marriage halls made on amenity plots. “We respect the court, but thousands of people cannot be rendered jobless in a random way,” he said.

According to the LG minister, SBCA DG Iftikhar Qaimkhani will prepare a list and a decision on demolitions would be taken after reviewing the list. He said Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has directed the DG to withdraw the notices sent to wedding halls until the Sindh government files a review petition in the court.

When asked if Mayor Wasim Akhtar was on board on the issue of wedding wall demolitions, Ghani said that in the anti-encroachment drive, thousands of shops were razed and hundreds of thousands of people were left jobless. The minister said the mayor was only complying with the orders of the Supreme Court, but these poor people should have been given time to evacuate.

“The PPP government is of poor people and will never like that these people be rendered jobless with the action of demolition of marriage halls at random,” he said. On Saturday, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Muttahida Quami Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) had put up a united front in their statements to save wedding halls in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s order to demolish illegal buildings in Karachi.

Meanwhile, after receiving assurances from Ghani, the Karachi Marriage Halls Association took back their call of closing down wedding halls. Earlier, the association had announced that wedding halls across the metropolis will be closed from Sunday in light of notices issued by the SBCA on the Supreme Court’s orders.

The Supreme Court on January 22 barred the use of residential houses for commercial purposes. “Wedding halls, shopping malls and plazas will not be constructed on residential plots,” the SC Karachi Registry ordered. Further, the court had ordered all encroachments across the metropolis should be immediately razed. “The buildings which are not part of the master plan should be demolished. The city should be restored to how it was 40 years ago. No matter how many buildings there are, they should be demolished,” Justice Gulzar Ahmed had said.

Following the Supreme Court’s orders, the SBCA sent notices to halt all commercial activities. According to officials, the SBCA is scheduled to begin its anti-encroachment operation from today.

Members of the Karachi Marriage Halls Association staged a protest outside the SBCA’s office located in Civic Centre on Saturday after receiving the notices. “We were given a three-day notice. Where are we supposed to work?” the protesters asked.

Earlier, Ghani assured that no wedding hall will be demolished in the metropolis on Monday, while Karachi Mayor Wasim Akhtar asked the Sindh government to file a review petition on the verdict of the Supreme Court ordering demolition of all wedding halls, plazas and shopping malls on residential lands.