ABOUT a couple of years ago, I had written a letter in the wake of a tragic incident in which 27 lives had been lost as a multistorey building collapsed in March 2020. It was an illegally built structure on a narrow plot in Karachi`s Gulbahar area.
The said letter, `Another disaster` (March 11, 2020), tried to alert relevant authorities as well as the courts regarding dangerous and illegal construction of multistorey apartment blocks on 100sq-yd plots in Karachi University Employees Cooperative Housing Society (KUECHS) in Scheme 33.
Later, 28 more people lost their lives when two other buildings collapsed in Lyari and Korangi in June and September 2020, respectively. The letter, which was aimed at helping the authorities prevent such incidents, clearly failed to make any difference and the builder mafia in KUECHS easily completed four stories on the narrow plots whose first two floors were constructed with ordinary grey infrastructure that is not at all meant for high-rise structures.
Further glaring details of irregularities were also mentioned in that letter. However, now the mafia in collusion with KUECHS administration is adding two more floors to such buildings which is a serious threat not only to the apartment dwellers but also to the adjacent houses. There are about 10 such buildings and construction work is being done during the nights to avoid any intervention from the authorities.
This situation is prevailing perhaps because the courtsare engagedin ensuring anti-encroachment operationsagainst specific slums and famous projects, and because officials of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) do not fear any legal action against their illegitimate approvals for illegal constructions across the city. Another reason is the plan of the provincial government to go through legislation to protect all illegal constructions across Karachi.
I wish to draw the attention of the higher courts and the government towards a disaster that is in the making.
