The Supreme Court on Friday directed the entertainment company operating a cinema on the premises of Al-Markaz-e-Islami, to immediately hand over the possession of the building to Karachi Metropolitan Corporation.
The direction came on a plea of Jamaat-e-Islami Karachi Amir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman who had challenged the conversion of the Islamic centre, located in Federal B Area, into a cultural centre and later into a cinema.
The counsel for Cineplex Cinemas that had entered into an agreement with the entertainment company, Funrama, to run the cinema, submitted that his client wanted to withdraw the application to become an intervener in the case and to have the stay order vacated. He requested that his client’s name be deleted from the proceedings.
The counsel of the entertainment company also submitted that he wanted to withdraw the application, but requested the court to ensure that his right to claim damages against violation of contract is not prejudiced.
KMC’s counsel, on the other hand, maintained that the civic authority had restored the status of the Islamic centre; however, possession of the building was yet to be taken over by the entertainment company.
The counsel for the entertainment company undertook to hand over the building’s possession to KMC. SC’s three-member bench headed by Justice Mushir Alam while disposing the application directed the entertainment company to hand over the possession of the Al-Markaz-e-Islami today (Friday).
The court had earlier allowed the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s administrator to take punitive action against those responsible for negotiating a contract for opening of a cinema inside the Islamic centre.
The SC had taken suo moto notice on the application of JI chief Naeemur Rehman who had alleged that former mayo Mustafa Kamal had changed the status and name of the Islamic centre in 2008.
He submitted that the former city government allowed conversion of the Islamic centre into a cinema in 2010 and even set up Shanzay auditorium on the top floor of the building where musical and stage programmes were held on every evening.
The petitioner had informed the court that the idea to construct Al-Markaz-e-Islami with a library, an auditorium and an art gallery for fine arts based on Islamic culture was primarily conceived by a city mayor, Abdul Sattar Afghani, through a resolution on Dec 4, 1980.
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