KARACHI: The Supreme Court on Saturday directed the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, cantonment board and other civic agencies to remove all the encroachment from roads, footpaths and amenity plots in the city.
Hearing a petition against encroachment of public parks and footpaths in the city, the Supreme Court’s three member bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar inquired from Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar as to when the encroachments from amenity plots, footpaths in the city will be removed.
The mayor submitted that the KMC is working to remove encroachments on the amenity plots and footpaths and sought the assistance of deputy commissioners of South and East zones and the Rangers. He submitted that majority of the encroachments at Empress market were removed and the drive will continue in other parts of the city. Justice Mushir Alam observed that the encroachments from footpaths at Saddar should be removed by the cantonment board.
The court directed the deputy commissioners of South, East zones, Rangers and the cantonment boards to assistance to the KMC for removing the encroachments at the Empress Market and its surrounding area and make it a model area of the city. The court observed that a similar exercise should be carried out with the assistance of deputy commissioners and Rangers to remove the encroachments from the public parks and amenity plots and submit a compliance report within 15 days.
Hearing a petition about shifting of oil tankers to Zulfiqarabad Oil Tankers Terminal from Clifton, the court directed the Commissioner Karachi, oil tankers association and oil marketing companies to conduct meetings with the stakeholders and resolve all the related issues for shifting the oil tankers to ZOT. The court also observed that the issue of allocation of shops be decided without any further delay. The counsel for oil marketing companies submitted that the pipeline project for petroleum products will be completed at Port Qasim Authority by 2019 and the oil supply through tankers will be reduced to 10%.
The court observed that Chief Minister of Sindh met him at his chamber and was keen to resolve all the administrative issues. The court observed that court direction about allotment of 50 acres land for oil tankers going to Balochistan be also implemented and directed the KMC commissioner to submit progress report on the next session.
