The Sindh High Court (SHC) has directed the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) to conduct strictly in accordance with the law while taking adverse action against marriage halls in different parts of Karachi.The court also directed marriage hall owners facing the SBCA’s action to not carry out any construction on their premises or use the same for any commercial purpose.
The direction came on identical petitions of marriage hall owners against the demolition drive of the SBCA on the pretext that their marriage halls were unlawfully operating in the residential areas of Korangi and Federal B Area.Filing comments on the petitions, the SBCA’s deputy director said marriage hall owners had been issued with adjustment notices for vacating their marriage and banquet halls built on residential plots, adding that the notices were issued in compliance with the Supreme Court’s directions.He said the SBCA had not accorded approval to any building plan for the establishment of a marriage or banquet hall on a residential plot that was liable to be demolished in the light of the SC’s orders.
He also said marriage hall owners had been directed to produce the relevant record in respect of the approved building plan for the establishment of their marriage halls, but they had failed to do so and had not visited the office of the SBCA.He pointed out that under the garb of interim orders of the court, some of the petitioners were again raising constructions, saying that the SBCA was under an obligation to remove the constructions raised in violation of the law.Petitioners’ counsel sought time to go through the SBCA’s comments, and undertook that no construction would be carried out on the premises in question, while such premises would not be put to commercial use whatsoever until the next date of hearing.
