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Friday March 29, 2024

Registering sale, lease or sub-lease deed banned unless building plan issued

By Jamal Khurshid
March 22, 2017

SHC told three sub-registrars suspended for
violating law, directs BoR to refer cases to ACE

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has ordered against registering sale, lease or sub-lease deed in any part of the province unless the competent authority issues the final building construction plan.

The order came on Tuesday on the petitions of Saira, Syed Irfan Ali Rashdi and others against construction of illegal buildings in Block 5 of Gulshan-e-Iqbal and the Mehmoodabad locality.

The report that Karachi District Registrar Ghulam Abbas Naich submitted in the court stated that three sub-registrars had been suspended for registering sub-leases of properties in violation of the Sindh Building Control Ordinance.

Naich assured the bench that concrete measures were being taken by his department as well as by the Board of Revenue (BoR) to ensure that no such illegal act was repeated by any sub-registrar in Karachi.

He said that from time to time circulars had been issued directing all the sub-registrars to comply with the mandatory requirements while registering documents, adding that they had complied with the recent court order to display such notices on the notice board at prominent places across the city.

He assured the court that henceforth no sale, lease or sub-lease deed would be registered by any sub-registrar in Karachi without presentation of the building completion plan in accordance with the building control ordinance.

In the previous hearing the district registrar had admitted that under the building control ordinance all sub-registrars and registrars were forbidden to register any sale, lease or sub-lease deed unless the approved completion plan was presented. The court observed that the mandatory provision of the ordinance had apparently been violated by the sub-registrars.

The SHC’s division bench headed by Justice Nadeem Akhtar ordered that no sale, lease or sub-lease deed should be registered by any sub-registrar in any part of the province unless completion of building construction plan was issued by the competent authority.

The court directed the BoR to refer the cases of the three suspended sub-registrars – Imdad Ali Qureshi, Zohaib Nazar Gopang and Aftab Ahmed Kolai – to the Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) and then file a compliance report.

 

Road repair projects

The SHC also directed the city traffic police chief to appear in person along with a complete report regarding steps being taken for smooth flow of traffic.

The court was hearing a citizen’s petition seeking completion of road repair projects on University Road and Tariq Road. The petitioner said the schemes were initiated three months ago and the pace of work was extremely slow, resulting in commuters facing severe traffic congestion.

He added that the ongoing projects were exacerbating traffic jams on major roads of the city and that the traffic police officials were unable to regulate traffic.

The petitioner said professional bodies, such as the Pakistan Engineering Council, should oversee the road schemes to ensure that the repairs were carried out in accordance with the required standards.

He requested the court to direct the local government to expedite work on the ongoing projects and complete them as soon as possible. He also sought directing the traffic police to control traffic congestion while the projects were under way by providing alternative traffic routes.

Submitting a report to the bench, project director Niaz Soomro said the progress of the schemes had been satisfactory and the relevant department was trying to complete them before June 30, which was the date fixed for finishing the projects.

Regarding traffic jams, the SHC observed that the current arrangements did not appear to be suitable for regulating flow of traffic while the road repair projects were under way.

The bench directed the traffic police chief to appear in court with a complete report on the steps being taken to ensure smooth traffic flow and adjourned the hearing until March 31.