KARACHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the municipal commissioner to immediately visit the Zulfikarabad oil terminal and submit a detailed report regarding infrastructural facilities there on Thursday (today).

A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed, was seized with the hearing of an application of the Karachi MetropolitanCorporation administrator seeking court`s direction to the Rangers and police to ensure shifting of oil tankers to the Zulfikarabad oil terminal, as the tanker operators had been resisting their shifting from Shireen Jinnah Colony to the terminal.

The KMC application was tagged with a petition filed by Shagufta Bibi, a resident of Clifton Block-1, who had asked the then Chief Justice of Pakistan in 2012 to order the shif ting of the oil tankers from her neighbourhood. The woman had in f act written a letter to the then CJP who converteditinto apetition.

The petitioner complained that heavy oil tankers were parked on both sides of the main road in Clifton Block-1 and its surrounding area. Besides, she said a number of auto workshops had been opened in the locality, makingthe lives of residents miserable.

She submitted that the oil tanker operators had encroached upon streets in Block-1 and its adjoining areas, causing environmental hazards and affecting residents` privacy, as families could not move about freely. She added that oil tankers were being parked in the residential parts of the colony causing hardship to the people.

On Wednesday, her counsel informed the judges that several oil tankers were still parked on the streets in Clifton`s Block-1 where a number of workshops were functioning.

The government law officer, however, claimed that the oil tankers had been shifted to the oil terminal and workshops had been removed from the vicinity.

He assured the court that the oil tankers, if any, parked along theroadside would also be moved to the oil terminal.

A representative of the oil tanker operators informed the SC judges that the provincial government had allotted 50 acres for the parking of oil tankers coming from Balochistan to Karachi. He requested the court to direct the authorities concerned to inform the court of the land allotment for the purpose, as the oil tankers coming from the neighbouring province were still parked on the roadside.

During the past three years, the apex court time and again directed the authorities and the oil tanker owners and operators to remove their vehicles immediately from Shireen Jinnah Colony, a neighbourhood in Clifton, but to no avail.

In his application, the KMC administrator stated that theZulfikarabad oil terminal was fully operational, but the oil tanker owners and operators were not ready to shif t to the new terminal, spread over 150 acres.

He sought court direction to the law enforcement agencies for assisting the city administration in shifting the oil tankers away from Shireen Jinnah Colony.

Manchhar Lake case Meanwhile, the apex court also directed the provincial authorities to file a detailed report on the measures being taken to contain pollution in the Manchhar Lake.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed was conducting the suo motu proceedings regarding contamination of Manchhar Lake.

Advocate General Zamir Ghumro submitted a progressreport regarding the measures being taken to improve ecological conditions at Manchhar L ake.

The report said the major causes of degradation of the lake were: entry of polluted water f rom Right Bank Outfall Drain-I and II (RBOD-I and II) into Manchhar Lake through the MNV drain; stoppage of historical flows from Indus River through inundation routes after the construction of embankments in 1940; reduction of inflows into the Indus, stoppage of flow of escapes from Rice and Dadu canals due to increased irrigation water demands for agriculture and urban effluent entering the MNV drain.

The advocate general told the judges that major work on RBOD-II had already been completed, while the issue of project`s funding had been resolved with the federal government.