HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Sindh High Court, Hyderabad circuit, has ordered the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA), Hyderabad Development Authority (HDA), Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) and local government department to “follow Supreme Court’s Jan 22, 2019 order in letter and spirit”.

The bench comprising Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro and Justice Adnan-ul-Karim Memon issued notices to the SBCA regional director, LG secretary, HDA’s planning and development control, HMC’s municipal commissioner and land director for March 4.

The bench was seized with a petition accusing the respondents of continuing to allow conversion of plots from residential to commercial status in violation of the relevant rules and the apex court’s Jan 22 order.

The petition was filed by Muzammil Memon, a resident of Latifabad Unit-10 through Advocate Tahir Nisar Rajput. He submitted in court that Latifabad was developed under a master plan in 1967 by then president Ayub Khan.

He stated that the Latifabad council through a resolution passed on Jan 21, 1990 authorised the Hyderabad mayor to allow sub-division of plots and land and amalgamation against the master plan. He prayed that this was an irregularity as nobody could change the master plan. Thereafter, he added, the mayor exercised his powers and changed the master plan of Latifabad through sub-division of large-size plots into smaller ones.

He said plots of different sizes (150sq yds to 1,000sq yds) were created in Latifabad. Commercial plots were identified in the master plan of Latifabad’s Units No. 1 to 12 in 1967.

For the last 15 years, he said, builders took full advantage of housing problem of the general public and got the category of plots changed against the policy of town planning and the original master plan.

The petitioner alleged that the land use of residential plots was changed to commercial in collusion with the taluka council, SBCA and HDA on Oct 30, 2004 through Resolution No. 189.

He said the resolution was passed by 15 councillors of Latifabad, delegating powers to the taluka nazim to allow commercialisation of residential premises located along main roads across Latifabad for raising plazas and marriage halls. As a result, he said, high-rise commercial buildings were constructed in violation of the master plan.

The petitioner also submitted that the powers delegated to the mayor were not applicable on Latifabad as it was a scheme of HDA because Resolution No. 189 was against the spirit of town planning, layout plan and master plan of Latifabad.

Then, he said, the defunct taluka municipal administration of Latifabad started issuing no-objection certificates illegally for using residential plots for commercial purposes.

He contended that the taluka municipal officer had misused his powers. The SBCA authorities never followed the rules as defined in their relevant law. He said even today, such powers were being exercised for approving plans for illegal conversion. The petitioner said that the SBCA was still approving building plans for illegally converted plots while the HDA was issuing no-objection certificates for such plots.

He prayed to the court to declare the Oct 30, 2004 resolution illegal and order officials to take action against the SBCA regional director, HDA planning director and HMC municipal commissioner and land director. He also prayed to the court to direct the respondent officers to stop issuing NoCs and giving approval for change of status of the bifurcated plots in Latifabad from residential to commercial.

He further prayed to the court to declare that after promulgation of the Sindh Local Government (Amendment) Act, 2015, all NoCs issued for conversion of land stood illegal. He urged the court to direct the respondents to get all illegally raised buildings and plazas in Latifabad demolished.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2019