Lea Market's heritage building being restored in original state, SHC told

KARACHI: Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) in a reply submitted in the Sindh High Court has said that Lea Market is a heritage building, which is being restored to its original condition, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

The Karachi Municipal Corporation submitted its reply over a petition of shopkeepers said that the Lea Market’s heritage building will be restored to its original state on the orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

The city body further stated that the bonafide shopkeepers of the Lea market will be provided an alternate place for their businesses.

The court while extending the stay order against the KMC’s notice to shopkeepers for vacating their shops, ordered the petitioners to submit their rejoinder to the civic body’s reply.

Earlier, the shopkeepers had filed a petition against the KMC’s notice. The body, consisted of over 170 shopkeepers submitted in the court that shopkeepers were legally allowed by the KMC to construct their shops on their own expenses and are paying regularly monthly rent to the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC).

They said that the allottees are the bona fide tenants of the city government and are not the encroachers and contended that their case is different from that of the encroachment in the city as they were legally allotted the shops.