SHC orders removal of encroachments in Shah Latif Town

The Sindh High Court has directed the deputy commissioner of District Malir, the Malir Development Authority and others to remove encroachments from different blocks and sectors of Shah Latif Town.

The direction came on a petition of Mohammad Iqbal, who sought removal of encroachments from different sectors and blocks of the town. The MDA filed a report with the court, submitting that repeated action has been attempted to remove encroachments that exist in various blocks and sectors of the town, but no avail.

A division bench headed by Justice Nadeem Akhtar directed the DC to coordinate with the MDA and identify areas which have been encroached and prepare a plan for systematically remove such encroachments.

The court directed the DC to inform all utility providers to disconnect their connections to the encrochements. The SSP and Rangers were also directed to provide assistance in the removal of encroachments by the district administration.

Petitioner Mohammad Iqbal submitted that several areas of Shah Latif Town, including 26-A, 26-B, 27A, 37A, 30A, 30B, 31A, and 31B, have been illegally occupied by the land grabbers and the civic administration was unable to remove such encroachments.

The Sindh High Court also directed the Cantonment Board Malir to remove an unauthorized construction from a capital cooperative housing society. The order came on a petition with regard to an unauthorized construction on a residential plot of the housing society.

The petitioner submitted that the illegal construction was made on the plot without an approved building plan and application for regularization of the additional floor was rejected by the Malir cantonment board.

The cantonment board counsel submitted that the construction could not be regularized as approval was for a ground plus one floor, which was converted by the petitioner to ground plus two floors rendering the structure to be considered as multistorey building not a residential house.

The court after perusal of the record of the case observed that the entire second floor was constructed without requisite approval of the cantonment law and such deviation cannot be compounded under the building bylaws.

The court directed the cantonment board to demolish the entire construction of the second floor, which was constructed in deviation of the approved building plan and to ensure that remaining construction of said property was restored to state which is conformity with approval sanctioned by the cantonment board.