In an unprecedented turn of events, the Supreme Court (SC) retracted its previous judgment and, after 18 months, lifted ban on construction of High rise buildings in Karachi. The judgment was passed by a larger bench of SC headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar at Karachi Registry. The court ordered that high rise buildings can be constructed in accordance with the laws of Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) in the city. The SC lifted the ban on the plea of Association of Builders and Developers (ABAD), who challenged the earlier decision of the apex court. The Ban was imposed in March 2017 due to unavailability of potable water and poor sanitation conditions in Karachi.
ABAD Chairman Muhammad Hassan Bakshi thanked Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Saqib Nisar and other members of the bench. He was of the opinion that the lifting of ban on high rises will benefit national economy because the construction industry in Karachi plays the same role as the textile industry does in Faisalabad.
This decision comes as a breath of fresh air for the construction sector in the metropolis because due to the ban, construction work had ceased on more than five hundred projects in Karachi, freezing the investment of nearly Rs. 6 billion and creating unemployment for hundreds of thousands of people. Allied industries had also been in distress and were on the verge of shut down.
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