ABAD’s reservations about SBCA rules amendment will be taken care of: Ghani

Sindh Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani has said the reservations of the Association of Builders and Developers (ABAD) will be taken into account regarding recent amendments to the rules of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) that allow commercial activities in the residential buildings.

He stated this while chairing the second meeting of the Business Facilitation and Coordination Committee on Wednesday. Ghani told the members of the committee that the recent amendments to the SBCA's rules had been introduced to give a legal cover to the commercial establishments functioning in the residential areas of Karachi for the last many years. He hinted at further amendments to the SBCA's rules due to ABAD's reservations about the issue.

He said Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had directed the constitution of the Business Facilitation and Coordination Committee to extend maximum relief to the members of the business community and the general public.

Ghani, who is also the chairman of the committee, directed the SBCA director general to prepare a sample design of individual housing units to be built on residential plots of 60 to 240 square yards. This ready availability of the sample designs would be helpful in the speedy approval of the building plans for the proposed individual residential units under a one-window system.

He directed the SBCA, Karachi Development Authority, Lyari Development Authority, Malir Development Authority, Hyderabad Development Authority, Sehwan Development Authority, Sindh Master Plan, Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and other civic agencies to submit a report within a week on progress in digitisation of their operations and services.

He assured the participants of the meeting that the next meeting would be attended by the chiefs of the Karachi Water & Sewerage Corporation, Hyderabad and Sehwan development authorities.

He directed the heads of different civic agencies and authorities to fully act upon the decisions taken by the committee. He directed different civic agencies to compile and submit a report within a week on fees collected by them in the last five years as development charges.

He said the land-owning and civic agencies should also submit a report within a week on the plots handed over to their owners for construction and encroachments, and other issues hindering building activities on such land.

The local government minister said the suggestions by the business community and ABAD members that the development charges paid by them to different civic agencies should be duly spent on developing the land under their respective jurisdiction would be seriously considered.

The meeting was attended by Sindh CM's Adviser on Katchi Abadis Syed Najmi Alam, Additional Local Government Chief Secretary Syed Khalid Hyder Shah, Special Secretary Housing and Town Planning Ali Bakhsh Mahar, SBCA Director General Ishaq Khoro, Karachi Development Authority DG Altaf Gohar, ABAD Chairman Hassan Bakshi, KCCI member Idrees Memon and other officials.

The participants of the meeting also prayed for the departed soul of senior Pakistan Peoples Party leader and senator Taj Haider.