THE Supreme Court (SC) directed the Karachi Commissioner
on Monday to demolish Nasla Tower, a 15-storey residential building located at the intersection of Shara-i-Faisal and Shahrah-i-Quaideen, through “controlled blasting” within a week and submit a report.
A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan, Gulzar Ahmad, instructed the Commissioner to ensure that no harm was caused to other buildings and persons in Nasla Tower’s vicinity because of the blast.
It also asked the Commissioner to ensure that the builder of Nasla Tower refunds money to registered buyers of the residential and commercial units.
The order seems to be harsh as the building was constructed with heavy investment but apparently the court is determined to get its directions implemented to send a clear message to land grabbers and violators of the law.
The 15-storey building was raised on the land meant for service road in the Sindhi Muslim Cooperative Housing Society in Karachi.
Land grabbing has assumed such alarming proportions in Karachi and Hyderabad that a term ‘China cutting’ (slicing plots from parks and land allocated for civic amenities and converting them into residential and commercial property) has been coined.
It is all the more regrettable that all this has been happening under the watchful eyes of the Government and a number of relevant organizations/departments and there are reasons to believe that they are hands in glove with the crime.
However, we may point out that such land grabbing is not confined to Karachi and Hyderabad as influential people and housing societies in almost all cities and towns are guilty of this practice and as a result citizens have been deprived of the lands meant for parks, playgrounds, mosques, educational institutions, health facilities and graveyards.
What a tragedy that a tall building (dubbed as Constitution Avenue-I) stands unfinished for years close to the main seat of the Supreme Court in Islamabad because of the controversy surrounding the land use in the area! In fact, action should be taken against management of civic bodies in case of violation of master plans and land grabbing.
