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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
CJP Ahmed inquired from Murtaza Wahab why he doesn’t take action against the “illegally constructed” land reserved for a park.<\/p>\n
Responding to the query, Wahab said they will take action if the court says so.<\/p>\n
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.”<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
He said that there are several places where illegal constructions have been done but there is no one to object to it.<\/p>\n
During the hearing, the court reprimanded the Karachi administrator and East district municipal commissioner for being unaware of the exact limits of Tariq Road.<\/p>\n
“You visit offices just to sit, have tea, gossip and then go home. You don’t have anything to do,” the CJP said.<\/p>\n
“What have you done to this city? Who is having all this done?”<\/p>\n
CJP Ahmed said that irreversible damage has been caused to the city, which needs an “explosion to get it right”.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
“This city will be built again like Germany, Japan and Poland,” he added.<\/p>\n