CJP admonishes Sindh govt over building crash incident, KCR drive updates

Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed on Friday hearing important cases in the Supreme Court’s Karachi registry admonished provincial authorities over the building collapse incident that occurred yesterday, ARY News.

The Chief Justice presiding over a three-member larger bench addressed attorney general Khalid Javed and advocate General Sindh, Salman Talib Uddin and apprised him with the updates of the ongoing anti-encroachment drives against illegal settlements.

CJP Gulzar Ahmed stated that things are refusing to change and now matters needed to be dealt with a certain severity.

The CJP added that those officials that are hindering the performances of those that could perform their duties better will be fired on the spot, alluding to the building collapse incident, Ahmed said that a building has collapsed will many are dead, will anyone one bother to take note of the situation?

Apprising the court of the headway made into the Karachi mass transit plan, Salman Talib Uddin said that the orange and green line bus services are ready and will soon be rolled out for the masses while other projects are also being developed with the help of World Bank’s monetary support.

A map of the mass-transit plan was presented to the CJP Gulzar Ahmed upon which the judge remarked that the plan was unreadable and lacked planning, he said that the plan was made in haste and probably for the acquisition of money rather than fulfilling an obligation.

The Chief Justice further remarked that if orange and green line projects were complete then buses should start running on them from tomorrow, taking a jibe at the current state of transportation in the mega-city, Ahmed said that the city had buses as old as world war one, he said that buses that were made in 1955 are still being run in Karachi which has the oldest and worst maintained buses on its roads.

AG Sindh confessed to lacunas in the system and incompetent officials at the helm of many important institute’s affairs to which Ahmed quipped that no major body under the Sindh government was working like they are supposed to, “they are all thieves and not working at all.”

Focusing his attention back to the building collapse case, the CJP questioned that who shall be held responsible for the death of 14 (16) people?

He also said that the Kemari port bridge is in a severely dilapidated position if it falls then Karachi will be disconnected from the entire world.

Without mincing words, the chief justice said that people are not hopeful with regards to Sindh governments performance and delivery, he said that opportunists await big paydays and have no remorse for their actions which may prove counter-productive.