KARACHI: Sindh government has failed to implement the Supreme Court (SC) orders regarding demolition drive in the city and is yet to take action against officials involved in facilitating construction of illegal structures, ARY NEWS reported citing sources.
The sources said that except the decision to remove the Director General (DG) of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA), the provincial authorities failed to remove any other officer under whose nose illegal structures flourished in the city.
The sources said that the apex court had directed the Chief Secretary Sindh Mumtaz Shah to prepare a 10-year report on construction of high-rise and illegal structures in the city. However, the report is not yet prepared.
The government also failed in its bid to evacuate and demolish the illegal high-rise structures.
Another important decision regarding preparing plans for alternative place for the demolition drive’s affectees or compensation to be paid to them was not prepared.
The project to compensate the traders community whose shops or business places were razed during the demolition process has also hit snags as the community is yet to get any compensation.
It is pertinent to mention here that Opposition Leader in Sindh Assembly Firdous Shamim Naqvi has opposed the demolition of the residential units coming in the way of the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) and said that in no way the project could be made functional within three months.
Naqvi said that as per the apex court directives the demolitions could only be made after making arrangements for the alternate housing facility.
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“Years have passed by but not a single initiative has been taken to provide alternatives to the affectees who were unaware of the illegality of the land at the time of purchasing,” he said.
He further demanded of the authorities to arrest the railways and building authority officials whose nexus allowed encroachment on the government land. “At first action should be taken against all such culprits,” Naqvi said.
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