Marriage hall owners call-off their strike in Karachi

KARACHI: Following the assurance of the Sindh Local Bodies Minister, Saeed Ghani, the owners of marriage halls in Karachi have called-off their tomorrow’s strike, ARY News reported on Saturday.

Rana Raees, the president of marriage hall association said, “The strike call was taken back, after the Sindh’s LB Minister, Saeed Ghani, assured them not to demolish their halls”.

<span data-mce-type="bookmark" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span>
Earlier in the day, marriage hall owners had decided to shutdown marriage halls from Jan 27 onwards for an indefinite period of time over notice issued by the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA).

The Sindh’s minister announced that the provincial government had decided to halt the anti-encroachment operation against Karachi marriage halls.

Saeed Ghani said that the Sindh government would file a review petition in the apex court against the order to demolish marriage halls in Karachi. He said that the government would extend deadline for razing the halls and would try to find out any other solution.

Meanwhile, Mayor Karachi Waseem Akhtar had also said that the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) will not raze the legal marriage halls in the metropolis.

Akhtar said that the buildings asked to be demolished did not encroach but in fact changed their land utility.

The SC order

On Jan 24, the SC had ordered to demolish all marriage halls situated along three major arteries of the city falling within the remits of Cantonment Board.

The apex court ordered that all wedding halls situated along Karsaz, Shahrah-e-Faisal and Rashid Minhas Road be demolished. It also directed authorities to raze cinemas, commercial plazas and markets in cantonment areas.

Hearing the case, the court summoned heads of Airport Security Force (ASF), Karachi Port Trust (KPT), Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and other relevant authorities.

The top court also sought report from heads of the aforesaid institutions within two weeks.