KARACHI: A Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) senator Thursday asked the Sindh government to ensure the delivery of compensation money to the residents of Nasla Tower, a 15-storey residential building in Karachi which the Supreme Court has directed to demolish for encroaching on the land reserved for a service road by Sunday.
The top court also directed the builder of the building to refund money to buyers of the residential and commercial units.
Senator Rukhsana Zuberi, a member of the Standing Committee on Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, demanded that the Sindh government immediately pay the promised compensation to the residents.
“These are over 50 families [living in the bulding]. They are being thrown on the streets. What will they do? Where will they go,” she questioned. “If you’re not paying them, at least give them a substitute accommodation to live in.”
She further urged President Arif Alvi to use his constitutional authority to find an amicable solution to the dispute.
The building owner, however, maintains that 780-sq-yds land in question was leased out in 1956 and for the remaining portion the Sindhi Muslim Cooperative Housing Society (SMCHC) had issued a letter in his favour.
DETAILED JUDGEMENT:
Meanwhile, in a detailed verdict, the court directed the Sindh government to use the latest technology in demolishing the building through controlled blasting.
Modern detonation procedures being used the world over must be adopted to raze the building, it said.
The court ordered to adopt precautionary measures to ensure no damage occurs to neighbouring structures in the process. The verdict also ordered the authorities to remove the rubble immediately.
The court also directed to complete the process by November 3.
In a previous judgement on the legality of the ownership of the land, the court had said: “It is claimed that around 1957, the main road that was proposed to be 280 feet wide was realigned and as a result, its width was reduced to 240 feet and the excess 40 feet was allotted to SMCHS through a letter by the chief commissioner in December 1957.”
It further noted the additional area was claimed to have been allotted by SMCHS to one Mustafai Begum and the area of the plot was allegedly increased from 780 square yards to 1,044 square yards and the additional area was neither incorporated in the original/amended lease nor in any subsequent lease deed.
The present owner ultimately acquired it by way of a conveyance deed executed in 2015 and initially, the plot in question was meant for residential purposes, but in 2004 the then city government through a resolution allowed conversion of all residential plots on Sharea Faisal for commercial use and in 2007 the plot was converted from residential to commercial use, it added.
The owners of the tower claimed that the additional area was allotted by SMCHS through a resolution in 2010 and the same came to be included in the total area of the plot while the mukhtiarkar in his report said that SMCHS had illegally increased the size of the plot by allotting the land reserved for the service road, the order said.
