Sindh told to issue notification for Karachi master plan

The Supreme Court-mandated judicial commission investigating Sindh’s environmental woes has directed the Sindh government to issue a formal notification for the master plan of Karachi which was approved by the apex court in a 2007 judgment.

The commission, headed by Justice (retd) Amir Hani Muslim issued the directives on Monday, observing that the provincial government was earlier directed on March 5 to issue a formal notification of the Karachi Strategic Development Plan 2020, which was prepared by the then City District Government of Karachi and approved by the SC on October 10, 2007.

Sindh additional advocate general submitted that he was not aware if such a notification had been issued or not. The director general of the Sindh Building Control Authority said that pursuant to the commission’s directives, the summary was floated which was returned with some qualification, which is perhaps in violation of Article 189 of the Constitution.

The commission observed that it would restrain from commenting on such a qualification on the assurance of the provincial law officer who stated that the notification will be issued promptly in compliance with the orders of the Supreme Court without loss of time and a compliance report shall be submitted to the commission within two days.

Regarding the conversion of industrial plots into commercial plots within industrial zones in Karachi and Sindh, the provincial law officer submitted that the industries secretary has been transferred and hopefully the present secretary will continue until these proceedings are completed.

He submitted that the provincial chief secretary was also newly-appointed and requested time to update the chief secretary and approach the commission with the government’s point of view on October 9.

On conversion of eight industrial plots for commercial use in Hyderabad, the SBCA director general submitted that eight plots in Hyderabad were neither permitted by the SBCA for conversion from industrial to commercial use nor were the buildings plan approved.

The commission then issued notices to the owners of the eight industrial plots to appear in person and explain the status of their plots.

The Supreme Court-mandated commission also directed the member task force to look into the matter with regard to encroachments on public roads creating public and environmental nuisance and rectifying the water sanitation and garbage disposal issues in union council 12- DMC East and redress the locals’ grievances against such encroachments.