The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday allowed the application of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) seeking urgent hearing of appeals against suspension of construction work on a flyover and two underpasses in Clifton, Karachi. The KMC counsel filed an application requesting the SHC to fix the matter for an early hearing as it was of national importance and if the matter was delayed it would cause inconvenience to the general public.
A division bench headed by Justice Irfan Saddat Khan allowed the application while fixing matter for hearing on May 26. The KMC and the Bahria Town have approached the court challenging an order of the SHC single bench that ordered the suspension of construction on the road project.
KMC counsel Farooq H Naik submitted that huge investment had been made in pursuance of the project and entire excavation and major portion of the work has been completed. Besides investment, a lot of hardship was being caused to commuters due to suspension of construction work, he added.
The project in question would ameliorate traffic congestion around the area of Park Towers and the shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi, he said, adding that the project is of natural importance and suspension of the construction work following the SHC orders was not only causing great inconvenience to the general public but also a colossal loss to the KMC. Earlier on April 29, the single bench of SHC headed by Justice Munib Akhtar had allowed the application of Defence Housing Authority (DHA) while ruling that all construction in relation to the project is restrained and stopped immediately.
He had directed the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) to obtain a mandatory environmental impact assessment (EIA) report from the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) on the project. Bahria Town's counsel Fayyaz Hussain Shah argued that SHC single bench had not taken into consideration the fact that DHA had no locus standi to institute the law suit as it had no concern with the project in question.
Shah said that the entire road had massively been dug up and excavation work was already completed. Entire construction work on project had been stopped which was causing inconvenience to the people, he added. The counsel said that the builder had received Rs 1.8 billion for the construction of project and half amount had already been spent on the construction work. If the impugned order is not suspended, it would cause huge loss to the applicant.