The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday instructed the Clifton Resident Committee (CBC) and the Defense Housing Administration (DHA) to submit complete details of the work assignments related to rainwater discharge in their respective jurisdictions.

The instruction comes from a contempt application filed by DHA residents against the CBC CEO, chief engineer, and other officials on the grounds that they did not comply with the court’s order to submit detailed information related to community rainwater discharge.

Residents of DHA and CBC have filed petitions for effective sewer and drainage system infrastructure and compensation for the lives and property losses suffered by the people of the city during the monsoon rains last year.

The applicant’s lawyer stated that SHC had instructed DHA and CBC on May 24 to submit detailed information on hiring professional civil engineer services to design and complete the second stage of rainwater discharge and related work assignments.

They said that the alleged suspect did not provide relevant details and requested the court to issue a notice to the relevant authorities proving the reasons for non-compliance with the court order.

The lawyers for DHA and CBC dropped the notice and promised to submit counter-testimony on the application. DHA also submitted an emergency plan based on observations made during the heavy rain in August last year to deal with any emergency situations that may arise during the downpour.

The judge of the SHC Chamber led by Judge Mohammad Shafi Siddiqui stated that the court also directed the National Disaster Management Agency and the Provincial Disaster Management Agency as necessary parties in the case.

The court instructed the office to issue a notice to the disaster management authority and instructed them to submit their opinions within 10 days. Petitioner Azar Kalwar and other DHA and CBC residents said that due to the rains on August 27 and 28, at least 41 people were killed across Karachi. They said that people including DHA and CBC residents suffered millions of rupees due to the catastrophic flooding.

Lawyers including Mosin Savani and Salman Mirza said that the heavy rains had caused severe damage to the city, and the authorities responsible for handling the situation failed to perform their duties as required, causing the residents of the city to face great Difficult, this situation continues.

They said that the Karachi Metropolitan Company, the Resident Committee, the Karachi Water Supply and Sewage Treatment Committee, the Sindh Solid Waste Management Committee, the DHA and the Karachi Development Authority have completely failed because they have been extracting millions of rupees in taxes from different leaders, but No spending on infrastructure

They also stated that the amount they received should be fully audited because no application was made to the maintenance of the infrastructure. They sought to establish a committee to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the drainage infrastructure and instruct the DHA and the camp committee to take all necessary measures to build an efficient rainwater drainage system within their jurisdiction.

They also seek various prohibitions on the collection of development fees, any further land reclamation, floodplain and important drainage canal construction.