The Sindh High Court has restrained the management and builders of multi-billion rupee residential project Creek Marina from advertising, promoting and further selling apartments on reclaimed land as well as creating a third-party interest therein till July 21..

The stay-order issued by the Sindh High Court has been based on the dispute over land acquired by pushing back the sea and the ownership rights of the residential project by two business groups.

A single-judge bench of SHC headed by Justice Zulfiqar Ahmad Khan also issued notices for the next hearing to the ministry of defence, Defence Housing Authority, Cantonment Board Clifton, Creek Marina Pvt Ltd and other defendants as well as the deputy attorney general.

A private company, and four individuals filed a case in SHC alleging that the Creek Marina Pvt Ltd, the plaintiff, received 24 apartments in the Creek Marina project in DHA Phase-VIII as part of a settlement deal.

Their lawyer brought up a similar case which involved the Emar Giga Karachi, and the court had restrained it’s management from further promoting, advertising and selling any projects/apartments on the reclaimed land.

They argued since the cases were similar, both handing out properties for settlement agreements even though the properties did not exist, a similar restraining order should be issued.

The residential project to be constructed on the prime land of Karachi’s coast has been delayed for the past 13 years.

The project was inaugurated in 2004 and was supposed to be completed in 2009. However, hundreds of citizens who had booked apartments in the residential project had to bear the loss when the residential project could not be completed on time.

In this regard, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had also filed a reference against the project administration on the charge of fraud.

Last year, the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) had also sent a notice to the project management warning that it is legally required to assess the environmental impact of the project before construction.

The stay-order granted by the Sindh High Court (SHC) has taken into account the project’s impact on the environment.

A constitutional petition, filed by the co-owners of the project Siddique Sons, pleaded that the project management is indebted to Siddique Sons and that the sale and advertisement of the apartments is illegal until they clear dues, hence, they should be stopped immediately.

The interim restraining order issued by the single judge bench was contested by Creek Marina Pvt Ltd in an intra-court appeal before a division bench of the Sindh High Court. The company claimed that some information was withheld from the single judge bench and that an ex-parte interim order was obtained, and it asked for the suspension of the order.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Salahuddin Panhwar fixed the appeal for hearing on July 19 since the respondents were on notice.