Reporting by Sohail Rab Khan

The Nasla Tower will be demolished manually as it was impossible to safely destroy the building without damaging nearby structures by detonating an implosion device.

This was decided in a meeting which was held on Monday at the office of the deputy commissioner East to finalize the procedure for demolishing Nasla Tower besides evaluating the expressions of interest offers.

On Wednesday, the commissioner Karachi and a technical committee will ask the contenders during the next meeting on the demolition procedure.

“We will prepare a detailed feasibility report regarding the demolition of Nasla Tower and submit the same in the Supreme Court at the next hearing,” officials said.

The Monday meeting was chaired by Deputy Commissioner East Asif Jan Siddiqui.

WHAT HAPPENED IN THE MEETING

KMC’s Director-General Works and Services Shabihul Hasan and senior director anti-encroachment Bashir Siddiqui shared details of the meeting with SAMAA Digital.

They said that five local companies had responded by submitting EoI offers. No foreign company took part in the EoI process, they said.

During processing on Monday, one company was eliminated because it said it would seek foreign assistance in demolishing Nasla Tower.

Officials said that finalizing any foreign firm would have taken a long time, exceeding the deadline given by the Supreme Court.

During the meeting, it was decided that representatives of the four remaining companies would attend the final meeting, which would be presided over by the commissioner Karachi, briefing officials concerned about their evaluations and how they would proceed in this regard.

The Karachi commissioner will finalise the company which would be tasked with the demolition process.

Officers confirmed to SAMAA Digital that the Nasla Tower demolition would be manual as a safe implosion blast was not possible at the project site.

The Karachi commissioner and a technical committee will ask the companies how to proceed with the demolition process.

Last week, Commissioner Karachi Iqbal Memon formed an eight-member committee for evaluating local firms offering expressions of interest or EoI.

Members of the committee included the deputy commissioner East as the chairman, director-general of SBCA, head of NED University’s civil engineering department, FWO’s commanding officer, DG of KMC Works and Services, SSP East, KMC’s senior director anti-encroachment and director-general of Shehri, an NGO.

The committee has the mandate to evaluate offers received under EoI for demolishing Nasla Tower, recommend the most suitable firm besides suggesting recommendations in this regard.

In order, the Supreme Court had ordered the authorities concerned to use “controlled detonation” for demolishing Nasla Tower.

The district administration served notices upon residents of Nasla Tower earlier this month. They were told to vacate the building by Wednesday, October 27.

District East had issued notices on October 12 after the apex court rejected a review petition against its June order.

The notices indicated that the Karachi commissioner “has to submit a report about the implementation of the Supreme Court’s instructions and ensure that the building is vacated”.

“Take notice that you are required to vacate the building i.e. Nasla Tower within 15 days,” the notices read.

The district authorities also advertised the same notices in local newspapers.

Nasla Tower was declared to have been built on encroached land by the Supreme Court on June 16 this year.

Subsequently, the builder and residents had filed separate review petitions to stop the authorities from demolishing it.

At a hearing on September 23, the petitioners’ lawyer argued that the construction was allowed despite lease cancellations, adding that in these circumstances, the residents were not at fault.

Justice Ijazul Ahsan replied that all residents should have checked the legality of the apartments before they bought them. “Are you not aware of the forgery that takes place in the city? How can you buy a house without inspection?” He reassured that the people affected by the demolition of the building would be paid compensation, according to the market value of Nasla Tower, by the government within three months and told the authorities concerned to demolish the building without any delay.

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