KARACHI : The Supreme Court on Monday vacated the stay orders of the Sindh High Court (SHC) against anti-encroachment operations in the port city.

Hearing a case on encroachments along Gujjar and Orangi drains at the apex court’s Karachi registry, a bench headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed directed the civic authorities to raze all the illegal structures at the earliest.

The top court instructed them to knock down residential and commercial buildings built on pieces of land with forged leases. A Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) lawyer informed the judges that most of the stay orders were issued on petitions of fake lease holders.

He said the KMC is removing all the encroachments along the city’s drains on the apex court’s directives. However, he added, the SHC is issuing stay orders against anti-encroachment operations and initiating contempt of court proceedings against officials of the civic agency.