• Director-land fails to answer Justice Agha Faisal’s questions about status and lease of shopping mall
• SBCA chief concedes original documents pertaining to action against building violations not found
KARACHI: The Gul Plaza Judicial Commission on Thursday summoned the municipal commissioner as an official of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) could not assist it and was unaware about the facts and record of the ill-fated building.
The single-member commission headed by Justice Agha Faisal of the Sindh High Court also recorded the testimonies of various officials, including Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) Director General Muzammil Hussain Halepoto, Karachi Water and Sewerage Corporation (KWSC) Chief Executive Officer Ahmed Ali Siddiqui, Deputy Commissioner (South) Javed Nabi Khoso and Police Surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed.
At the outset of the hearing on Thursday, Director Land (lease) KMC Syed Adnan Hyder Zaidi turned up to testify before the commission, but he could not offer a satisfactory reply to various questions about the legal status and lease of the plot in question.
The commission summoned the municipal commissioner, who is the top bureaucrat of the KMC administration, to appear in person for recording statement and provision of relevant records on Feb 23.
‘SBCA has no record of notices sent to Gul Plaza admin over violations’
SBCA DG Halepoto deposed that one Anwar Ali got the building plan approved in 1979, the construction started in 1986, while the lease of the plot had expired in 1983 and the same was renewed in 1991.
A revised plan was approved in 1998, and dozens of unauthorised shops were regularised in 2003, and an application was filed seeking a sale no objection certificate (NOC) in 2005, but in fact all the shops were already sold out apart from the basement, he added.
He also maintained that permission was sought in 2015 to build additional floors, but the same was turned down. The mezzanine floor of the building was not available in the records of the authority, and there were a total of 18 gates in the building, he added.
When the commission inquired about records and action taken by the SBCA over these violations, the SBCA chief conceded that only photocopies of such documents were
