Supreme Court orders demolition of Nasla Tower in Karachi

The Supreme Court has ordered the demolition of 11-storey residential building Nasla Tower on Karachi’s Sharae Quaideen.

Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed resumed hearing Thursday morning the petitions against the encroachments in the city at Karachi Registry.

The top judge asked the Karachi commissioner about the residential project while hearing a petition against encroachments on Karachi’s Sharae Faisal and Sharae Quaideen.

According to the Sindh Building Control Authority, the building has not been constructed on any nullah, the commissioner remarked.

The advocate general said that one side of the building is illegal and that should be demolished.

“Don’t talk about the SBCA in front of us,” the judge said. They are responsible for all illegal constructions in Karachi. “There is not vacant land in PECHS. Where did this land come from?”

The SBCA DG said that this land was spotted after the re-allotment of the road.

To this, the top judge remarked: “So does this mean that you would sell this land? What have you been doing? You will even allot CM House if you could.”

Justice Ijazul Ahsan asked who approved the lease on this land.

The builder never comes to the court. He is missing, Justice Ahmed remarked. “He has even convinced the authorities to make a report in his favour.”

Nasla Tower is located at the intersection of Sharae Faisal and Sharae Quaideen. One apartment roughly costs Rs30 million.

Royal Park Residency case

The Karachi commissioner told the court that the Royal Park Residency building is currently being demolished. “Only 20% of work remains,” he said and submitted a report in court.

The court expressed its anger over his report. “Do you think we only depend on your report? What has the DC even written in this report? Do you think Supreme Court is a government office?”

Justice Ahsan said that the commissioner is accepting that he is presenting someone else’s report.

The commissioner should be held responsible for this, the chief justice added.

The Royal Park Residency is an eight-storey building constructed on amenity plot number 333 on Main Rashid Minhas Road adjacent to Aladdin Park in Karachi’s Gulshan-e-Iqbal Block No 11.

On February 21, 2020 a three-member bench headed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, in its interim order, directed the Karachi commissioner to demolish the building after declaring it illegal.

The apex court said that the Sindh government’s revenue department illegally sold two acres of amenity land near Aladdin Park for the purpose of construction of a residential-commercial multi-storied building on Rashid Minhas Road. It observed that all documents relating to the transfer of land, lease, and allotment were fake and must be cancelled.