SHC rejects issuing stay order against anti-encroachment operation

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has rejected the issuance of a stay order against the anti-encroachment operation in Karachi, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

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’.

Read: Mehmoodabad nullah anti-encroachment drive continues

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.

Earlier in December last year, the Sindh High Court (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.