KARACHI: The Supreme Court directed on Tuesday the authorities concerned to restore the park on the land of the Madina mosque near Karachi’s Tariq Road within a week.
Karachi Administrator Murtaza Wahab and the Karachi commissioner appeared before the court during the hearing of a case related to the construction of the mosque. The hearing was headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Gulzar Ahmed at the Supreme Court’s Karachi registry.
CJP Ahmed inquired from Murtaza Wahab why he doesn’t take action against the “illegally constructed” land reserved for a park.
Responding to the query, Wahab said they will take action if the court says so.
At this, CJP Ahmed remarked: “I am surprised to see you people [behave this way]. It is your job and yet you wait for our [the court’s] order.”
“These are places of residence rather than places of worship where there are no electricity bills or any other utility bills,” Justice Qazi Amin remarked.
He said that there are several places where illegal constructions have been done but there is no one to object to it.
During the hearing, the court reprimanded the Karachi administrator and East district municipal commissioner for being unaware of the exact limits of Tariq Road.
“You visit offices just to sit, have tea, gossip and then go home. You don’t have anything to do,” the CJP said.
“What have you done to this city? Who is having all this done?”
CJP Ahmed said that irreversible damage has been caused to the city, which needs an “explosion to get it right”.
The CJP said 40 families are living where there was a house for four people. He said eight-storey buildings have been erected on plots scaling 200 yards, adding that the situation is the same from PECHS to North Nazimabad.
“This city will be built again like Germany, Japan and Poland,” he added.
