RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: The Supreme Court Saturday ordered demolition of the walls with advertisements in the metropolis and imposed a ban on using walls for this purpose in the city.

A larger bench of SC headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mian Saqib Nisar, issued the orders when the court took up petition seeking action against those walls on which advertisements are inscribed.

The petitioner stated that walls are being constructed in the city, especially in cantonment areas with advertisements. He pointed out that beauty of city has been ruined and referred to construction of walls before FTC at Sharea-e-Faisal as well as in other parts of the city.

The CJP summoned the Chief Executive Officer of Cantonment Board to inform the court about who raised these walls in cantonment areas.

The CEO informed the court that these walls were constructed from point of view of defence and cantonment board has issued notices to advertisement companies for using these walls for publicity purposes.

The CJP remarked that cantonment board should take action against these advertisement companies as mere issuing notices would not serve the purpose.

The court ordered to demolish walls with advertisements on all roads along with Sharea-e-Faisal and sought report within 10 days in this regard. The court also imposed a ban on raising walls for advertisement purposes in the city.

Official accommodations: The larger bench of the Supreme Court ordered vacating the official accommodations from unauthorized persons within one month in Karachi.

The larger bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar took up the case of occupation of official accommodations by the persons who are not entitled to use it.

During the hearing, federal government presented the report about the government accommodations in the city. The report stated that more than 4,000 housing units owned by the government have been occupied in the city.

The report pointed out that out of 4,000 government house; the cases of 800 houses are in litigation in different courts.

The court ordered that these government houses should be retrieved from illegal occupants with the help of Rangers and police and ordered the authorities concerned to submit a report in this regard.

In May 2018, the SC took notice of illegal and unauthorized occupation of government residences in a case pertaining to human right when it was pointed out that a major chunk of unauthorized occupation of government owned residences exists is in Karachi.