Pakistan’s Federal Constitutional Court has delivered a major Nasla Tower court ruling. It found that the Supreme Court overstepped its authority years ago. Judges had wrongly expanded a single property dispute into a citywide campaign. Therefore, the decision strips away the legal foundation behind years of demolition orders across Karachi. This includes the order that brought down the high-profile Nasla Tower.

The FCC recalled Supreme Court orders issued on December 21, 2018, and January 22, 2019. Moreover, those orders had allowed authorities to pursue illegal construction throughout Karachi. Additionally, the court recalled every report, proceeding, and action carried out under those directives. Still, it found that the earlier bench had gone far beyond the case in front of it.

A dispute between Abdul Karim and Nasir Salim Baig sits at the heart of the judgment. Also, that case started over a single building in Karachi’s Lyari neighborhood. However, it soon grew into a much broader campaign against unauthorized construction. The 27th Constitutional Amendment established the FCC in November 2025. Furthermore, it now holds the constitutional jurisdiction the Supreme Court once held. The FCC said the original orders exceeded the case’s scope.

Justice Aamer Farooq led the two-member bench that issued the ruling. Courts may issue directions beyond an immediate dispute. However, courts may only do so when necessary to resolve that specific case. The bench found that turning a single-building dispute into citywide demolition orders did not meet that standard. Still, enforcing building laws remains the constitutional responsibility of Sindh’s provincial government, the court added, not the judiciary.

An appeal against a Sindh High Court order kicked off the case in 2016. Also, that order had demanded the demolition of a building on Mussa Lane in Lyari. The building allegedly stood on evacuee property. Two years later, the Supreme Court expanded the case significantly. It sought details on unauthorized buildings across Lyari. Additionally, it directed the Sindh Building Control Authority to act against illegal construction citywide. By January 2019, the court had imposed a citywide ban on land use changes. It also ordered several commercial buildings demolished.

Nasla Tower became the most prominent casualty of that campaign. The 15-story building stood on Sharea Faisal. Additionally, it served both residential and commercial purposes. Moreover, the building had encroached on land reserved for a service road. In June 2021, the Supreme Court ordered its demolition. It also instructed the developer to refund registered buyers within three months. Review petitions later failed. Authorities then ordered residents to vacate. Workers brought the building down through controlled implosion in late October 2021.

The FCC clarified that its ruling does not reverse the demolition itself. Nobody can undo that demolition. Instead, the ruling removes the legal basis that let the Supreme Court supervise construction across Karachi on an ongoing basis. Meanwhile, the decision creates fresh uncertainty around compensation for Nasla Tower’s owners. A 2024 Supreme Court order had directed authorities to auction the site and compensate buyers. However, authorities had not made any payments by last year. That auction process relied on the very orders the FCC has now recalled.

Former residents and owners visited the Nasla Tower site after the ruling. Muhammad Ali said he owned three apartments in the building. He criticized the original demolition, saying one judge’s decision destroyed many families. Still, the new ruling’s significance, he added, remains unclear to him. Separate decisions, he noted, now exist for Nasla Tower and for a related Islamabad case.

Association of Builders and Developers of Pakistan Chairman Hassan Bakshi welcomed the ruling instead. He said it corrected an approach that took eight years to reverse. The federal and Sindh governments, he urged, should sell the Nasla Tower land and compensate owners. Additionally, he called on former Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed to acknowledge what he described as a mistake.

Other actions tied to the earlier judicial campaign could also feel the effects of this ruling. These include clearance operations along Karachi’s Gujjar and Orangi nullahs. Authorities launched those operations under a related 2020 Supreme Court order. Meanwhile, the operations displaced more than 50,000 people, according to residents’ groups. Many said compensation arrived late, incomplete, or not at all.

Not every land-use decision from that period faces the same fate. A separate 2022 Supreme Court judgment voided the allotment of 200 acres of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation land at Gutter Baghicha. That judgment remains in force. Still, it addressed a specific land grant rather than broader judicial oversight.

The FCC stressed that its judgment does not legalize illegal construction. Encroachments, it said, still remain the responsibility of Sindh’s government and its regulatory agencies. In a separate opinion, Justice Syed Arshad Hussain Shah added something important. He said protecting parks, playgrounds, sidewalks, and other public spaces remains a constitutional obligation of the state. Finally, this Nasla Tower court ruling leaves one key question unresolved. It remains unclear whether Sindh’s regulatory authorities can enforce building laws effectively without judicial oversight.