The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday ordered that the Karachi Strategic Development Plan (KSDP) 2020 should remain operative until any new plan, including the proposed Greater Karachi Regional Plan (GKRP) 2047, is lawfully approved and notified.
The order came on a petition seeking the enforcement of the notified KSDP 2020 to harmonise the existing town planning laws. Petitioner M Tariq Mansoor said the Sindh Master Plan Authority (SMPA) was established in the light of the Supreme Court’s February 2020 orders. However, he added, despite the lapse of several years, neither has the statutory act been passed nor have the rules been framed by the provincial government.
Mansoor said that effective and sustainable implementation of the development plan under the law has not been implemented in letter and spirit, which is leading to bad governance and functional anarchy in the city.
He said that due to a lack of enforcement of the KSDP, the city has been affected by unplanned urban growth, severe strain on civic amenities, infrastructure collapse, environmental degradation and serious prejudice to the rights of the citizens.
He also said that although the SMPA had been notified, the necessary statutory framework, rules and institutional mechanism required for effective implementation of the KSDP have not been established or operationalised.
He added that institutional inaction and lack of coordination among the government’s civic departments have resulted in governance failure and administrative dysfunction in the city. The petitioner said that according to Clause 1.8 of the subject development plan, the operational time span for the plan extends to the year 2020 within the scope of the Pakistan 2030 vision.
This period was basically assigned in view of the feasibility of achieving the plan objectives and making the required resources available in the foreseeable future, he added. He said that the instant plan according to Clause 1.8 would further extend to the year 2030 under the federal government’s 2030 vision to cover the city region that includes parts of the surrounding districts of Thatta, Jamshoro and Lasbela.
Despite the notification of the Karachi Master Plan, it is still held in abeyance due to bad governance and functional chaos in the city, which is detrimental to the rights of the residents, he added.
He pointed out that instead of enforcing the KSDP 2020, the provincial government is pursing the proposed GKRP 2047, which is contrary to the existing KSDP 2020 and an attempt to regularise the prior irregularities.
The provincial law officer and other respondents’ counsel said that master planning is a continuous process, with multiple development plans being devised over time. They said the petitioner seeks the enforcement of the KSDP, and raises broad issues relating to urban governance, planning and inter-departmental coordination with disputed facts and technical evaluation that falls outside the scope of the constitutional jurisdiction.
An SHC division bench headed by Justice Adnanul Karim Memon said that this court has already issued comprehensive directions for the framing of the rules and for ensuring consistency with the KSDP.
The bench directed the government and other civic authorities to comply with the orders of the court as regards the framing of the rules, consistency of regulatory framework and adherence to the KSDP 2020.
The court said the KSDP 2020 should remain operative until any new plan, including the proposed GKRP 2047, is lawfully approved and notified. The SHC warned that any deviation from the court’s directions would entail legal consequences in accordance with the law, subject to the final policy decisions of the provincial government on the subject issue.
The court had earlier ordered the provincial government to finalise and notify the Sindh Building Planning, Construction, Control, Demolition & Disposal Rules, as contemplated under Section 21 of the Sindh Building Control Ordinance, in the official gazette.
The SHC had also ordered that neither the Sindh Building Control Authority nor any other authority should exercise any powers in deviation of the KSDP until the requisite rules are duly framed and notified in conformity therewith and in accordance with the binding judgments of the apex court.
