The Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) have challenged the recent amendments to the Karachi Building and Town Planning Regulations 2002 with regard to commercial use of residential and amenity properties in the city.
Filing petitions with the Sindh High Court, the JI’s leader of the opposition in the City Council Saifuddin and PDP Chairman Altaf Shakoor submitted that the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) had issued a notification amending the Karachi Building and Town Planning Regulations.
They said the amendments would violate the basic rights of citizens and open a flush gate of commercialisation of residential areas as any house could be used for any commercial activity. They said the amendments ripped amenity plots of their status and the government would be able to use them for any purpose. They submitted that the amendments were a clear violation of the KDA ACT 1958 and the Supreme Court of Pakistan rulings.
They submitted that the impugned notification had exceeded its authority and gone beyond the vires of statute. They submitted that the recent amendment would make residential areas into commercial or semi-commercial areas, disturbing its peaceful environment and the residents would be facing obvious mental agony and tortures tagged with traffic noises as well as hundreds of strangers would be crossing in the vicinity due to sudden permission of carrying out commercial activities.
They submitted that the impugned amendment had totally failed to mention, describe or explain any planning that showed the benefit to the residents of the residential area and no specific purpose had been mentioned therein.
They said the SBCA had failed to comply with any procedural formalities and passed the amendment in a hurry. They submitted that the SBCA by this amendment had opened a gateway of welcoming bribes and illegal gratification in issuing the permission for converting the use of residential area for a commercial activity.
They submitted that giving permission to the operation of using commercial activities on the residential properties would surely cause noise pollution, traffic jams, security laps and lack of privacy, as well as devalue the properties which would affect the residential areas as the concept of peaceful environment would be ended by this notification.
They submitted that as per the terminology, residential area meant a place dedicated to the residents only without having any commercial activities. They submitted that the amendment to the Regulation 18-4.2.2 removed the requirement of inviting public objections before seeking to convert property for residential use to property which could also be used for education and health and this snatched the rights of neighbours to be heard before residential plots in their neighbourhoods can be used for education or health purposes.
The petitioners maintained that the apex court had also imposed a ban on converting the residential properties into commercial or residential-cum-commercial properties, as such the impugned notification was beyond the scope of the SBCA which had assumed itself the authority that could alter the master plan of Karachi.
The high court was requested to declare that the impugned amendment was void ab initio without any lawful authority. They requested the court to set aside the impugned notification and order to bring back the original position as per the Karachi Building and Town Planning Regulation 2002.