Karachi: The Sindh government is to introduce an ordinance soon to regularise all residential projects whose construction took place with some kind of structural or design irregularities so as to save the people from being homelessness.
The assurance to this effect was given by Karachi’s Administrator Murtaza Wahab, who held negotiations on behalf of the Sindh government with a delegation of Association of Builders and Developers of Pakistan (ABAD).
After holding the talks, the ABAD announced to put off their planned protest march from its office till Sindh Chief Minister House in Karachi to save the residential buildings with some irregularities, especially those in the provincial capital, from getting demolished.
The ABAD earlier announced to hold the protest march after the demolition of a 15-storied residential project, Nasla Tower, began on the main Sharea Faisal of Karachi on the directives of the Supreme Court after eviction of its residents. The iconic Nasla Tower is being demolished as it encroaches upon the nearby service road next to the busiest thoroughfare of the city.
Speaking to media persons after holding negotiations with the Karachi’s Administrator, ABAD Chairman, Mohisn Sheikhani, said that their protest drive was neither against the federal or Sindh governments as they had been agitating purely as a representative body of an important segment of the trade and economy.
He said the builders concerned in the city reserved the right protest peacefully if they were not being allowed to do business.
Sheikhani told media persons that they had decided to take to the streets not to get any undue benefit or privilege from the government but to prevent the downfall of the construction sector of Karachi.
He said the builders in the city had already stopped their work on 300 real estate projects in the city, involving investment to the tune of Rs900 billion, to register their protest in view of the uncertain situation.
He said the government should come up with a firm policy to protect the construction sector as hundreds of thousands of people are dependent on this industry for their livelihoods.
The ABAD Chairman said that the housing projects shouldn’t be demolished in Karachi as the concerned builders had constructed them after getting all the due regulatory approvals and no-objection certificates from several civic agencies concerned.