ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has ordered the demolition of high-rise Tejori Heights within a month and directed to compensate the affectees in three months.
The court asked the Karachi commissioner to supervise the demolition of Tijori Heights and present its report in the court. The under-construction building in Gulshan-e-Iqbal is being erected on a piece of land claimed by the Pakistan Railways and allocated for the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR).
A Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmad heard the Tijori Heights case at Karachi Registry on the second consecutive day on Friday.
The counsel for the builder’s Raza Rabbani informed the court that the owner of the building herself had agreed to demolish it. The apex court ordered the owner to arrange for the removal of the debris as well after its bulldozing. It asked the Karachi commissioner to oversee the process of razing of the building himself.
The court asked the proprietor if she wanted to take out her things and records, she could do that. The counsel told the court that it was not possible for his client to raze the Heights immediately. He sought 2 to 3 weeks’ time from the court.
A day earlier, Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) heard a petition in the Karachi Registry of the Supreme Court regarding the transfer of lands of Tejori Heights.
The judge remarked that the building is illegal and documents have been altered. The top judge remarked that the building has also been vacated, adding that it may have been changed in government departments but the law has not been implemented.
Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan asked whether the land belongs to the railways or not is not being decided but the land does not belonged to government agencies and has not been transferred incorrectly.
The court inquired as to how the lands of Tejori Heights were transferred from one survey number to another. Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan remarked that the treasury heights were illegally transferred from Survey No. 190 to 188 and called the procedure criminal.
On Monday, the Supreme Court bench headed by the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) also heard the case pertaining to the construction of Tejori Heights, which is being contested on the grounds that the land for the building belongs to Pakistan Railways (PR).
The lawyer representing Tejori Heights said that the court had issued directives for sealing the project in November 2020 and a review petition had been filed against the order. He added that the Pakistan Railways had also filed a civil suit pertaining to the matter in the Sindh High Court. The court adjourned the hearing.
In January this year, then Karachi commissioner Navid Shaikh ordered sealing of Tejori Heights and brought construction to a halt. The court had instructed that all encroachments and illegal occupations from the KCR land must be removed.
