KARACHI - The Sindh High Court has on Monday directed the city authorities to stop the demolitions of houses along Gujjar Nullah and has taken to task for not heeding its earlier similar order.

The court asked Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) why did it not heed earlier court orders of not demolition the houses considered to be in violation of land laws and continued to raze the residences of people. Those who have violated court orders will be dealt with legally, said the SHC judge.

It has ordered to stop any further demolitions and has asked KMC to not go forward with its anti-encroachment operations in Qabail Colony, Nazimabad and the adjacent areas, until the appeals have all been dealt with.

Until the conclusion and decision on the pending appeals, there shall be no further demolitions along nullahs, said SHC.

The court has sought response of the complainants to be furnished by November 8 while the lawyers have submitted the evidence of demolitions.

Top court directs Sindh govt to rehabilitate nullah affectees within year. Earlier last month, the Supreme Court bench released the written order on compensating the affectees of Gujjar and Orangi nullahs.

The Karachi registry bench of the top court, headed by the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Gulzar Ahmed, has written that reason cited by the Sindh government over lack of funds to rehabilitate the affectees, whose houses were demolished in the cleaning drive, is not acceptable. Take every possible step to compensate them, the written order said.

With all basic utilities, the government is directed to resettle them within a year and for which the initial report must be furnished within two weeks from now.

Polio fine of Rs25,000 slapped on anti-vaccine woman

The Sindh High Court has rejected an anti-polio vaxxer’s plea imposing a Rs25,000 fine on the woman petitioner for bringing a frivolous petition.

The Sindh High Court on Monday heard a unique petition seeking disbanding of polio drops administration. A woman petitioner, Bisma Naureen, stated in her petition that the polio vaccination was causing more harm than cure praying to the court to disband the administration of polio drops. 

Irked by her logic, the high court reprimanded the petitioner saying if she had no knowledge of the legal affairs, how she could talk about the law. 

The counsel for the Sindh government argued that the entire world except Pakistan and Afghanistan has nearing become polio free.  The court rejected the petition and imposed a fine to the tune of Rs25,000 on the woman petitioner for submitting a vain petition. 

SHC directs Nepra 

to submit report on 

electrocution deaths

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday directed the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) to furnish a report about deaths from electrocution during rains in Karachi.

The court order came by a two-judge bench while hearing a petition filed by the Jamaat-e-Islami seeking action against K-Electric over poor maintenance of its installations which allegedly caused the fatalities during rains.

A counsel for the party said K-Electric being the metropolis’ sole power distributor was responsible for deaths. The court was told that the city’s sole power distributor was responsible for deaths. The deaths occurred due to electrocution during rains. In March, a session court had directed K-Electric to pay a Rs15 million penalty to the heirs of a 12-year-old boy who was killed by electric shock in 2013.