The Sindh High Court (SHC) has rejected the issuance of a stay order against the anti-encroachment operation in the city. The owners of hotels have moved to the Sindh High Court (SHC) to challenge the demolition of the restaurants during the anti-encroachment operation to end illegally occupied land along Karachi’s Super Highway. The owners sought a stay order against the ongoing anti-encroachment drive which the high court rejected to grant it. They said that the notice issued to them by the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) was illegal. In the petition, the hotels’ owners pleaded the court to stop the demolition of the restaurants constructed on the plots ‘being used for both commercial and residential purposes’. The SHC judge said that the court will listen to the stance of the concerned officials. The high court issued notices to SBCA director-general (DG) and other parties in the case. Meanwhile, the municipal officials continued an anti-encroachment drive along Mehmoodabad nullah on Tuesday. Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and other concerned departments resumed demolition of soft encroachments in the area with machinery today. After January 07, concrete encroachments would also be removed including partial demolition of 57 houses built at the encroached land. The city officials on Monday removed structures on about seven-and-a-half-kilometer area in the anti-encroachment drive along Mehmoodabad nullah. The extended and encroached areas and walls of houses and shops were either cleared away or demolished in the anti-encroachment drive. The operation is said to be continued for four days straight in collaboration with KMC and other relevant city agencies. Earlier last month, Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah chaired a Karachi Coordination Committee session to contemplate development projects and drainage infrastructure of the metropolis. Earlier in December last year, the SHC had ordered Karachi Development Authority (KDA) to launch a massive anti-encroachment drive in Karachi’s area of Gulistan-e-Jauhar to vacate the land occupied through China cutting. The judgement had been passed on a plea submitted in SHC accusing the KDA of supporting the land mafia in Gulistan-e-Jauhar. The court had directed the KDA to launch a massive drive to vacate the occupied land in the area.
