Karachi registrar and sub-registrars put on notice

The Sindh High Court issued a show cause notices to the Karachi district registrar and two other sub-registrars on Wednesday for misusing powers and violating the mandatory provisions of Section 18 (g) of the Sindh Building Control Ordinance by allowing a sub-lease of a building in Gulshan-e-Iqbal without an approved building plan.

The court also directed the Karachi registrar to ensure that no sale deed, lease deed or sub-lease deed in respect of a newly constructed building or premises was registered without the presentation of a completion plan before the sub-registrar.

The court directed the Karachi registrar to display these court directives on notice boards at prominent places at the offices of the sub-registrars throughout the city.

The directives came on a petition of Syed Irfan Ali Rashdi and others against the construction of an illegal building in Block 5 of Gulshan-e-Iqbal. The petitioners submitted that the respondent, the owner of the land, had started raising an illegal construction in the residential area without an approved building plan.  An SHC division bench headed by Justice Nadeem Akhtar issued notices to district registrar and sub-registrars of Gulshan-e-Iqbal.

Karachi district registrar Ghulam Abbas Naich and sub-registrar Imran ul Haq appeared before the court and filed their statements. The sub-registrar submitted that the sub-lease in question was registered by his predecessors Aftab Ahmed Kalohi and Ashfaq Hussain Shah. The district registrar conceded that under section 18 (g) of the Sindh Building Control Ordinance, no sub-registrar or the registrar could register a sale deed or sub-lease in respect of a newly constructed premises unless an approved plan was produced.

The SBCA has already confirmed that second floor of the building has been constructed illegally without an approved plan.  The court observed that mandatory provision of the section 18(g) of the ordinance had prima facie been violated by the sub-registrars.