Blame game starts as authorities deny responsibility for building collapse

As what has become the norm after every tragic incident in the city, a blame game has started between various governmental departments in the wake of the collapse of a four-storey residential building in Allahwala Town in District Korangi on Thursday.

The Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA), Karachi Development Authority (KDA) and Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) seem to be passing the buck after Thursday’s incident in which four people died and around eight were injured.

The relevant union council (UC) chairman had informed the departments concerned several times about the illegal constructions and rickety sewerage infrastructure of residential buildings in the UC, which allegedly became the cause of the collapse on Thursday. However, all the complaints of the UC chairman fell on deaf ears.

The building was illegally constructed on a 240-square-yard portion of an amenity plot of 22,596 square yards in Allahwala Town. As many as seven families lived in the building. The SBCA refused to accept the responsibility of the incident after claiming that it had never issued any approval for the construction of the four-storey building, which was one of the several illegally-constructed buildings on the amenity plot, ST-12, for a playground.

The building control authority, however, has yet to come up with an explanation as to who allowed its construction and why it never took any action against the illegal construction. Meanwhile, the KDA, which owns the amenity plot, is of the view that the responsibility for the illegal constructions on the land lies with the SBCA.

All forewarned

A letter written in July 2019 by then chairman of District Korangi UC-31, Faizan Khan, to the KDA director general (DG) clearly mentioned how the amenity plot ST-12 in Allahwala Town, Sector 31/B, Plot number 6,7 and 8 and KDA Employees Sector 31/C-1 and 31/C-2 were being illegally occupied.

The letter was also received by the KDA’s executive engineer with the serial number of 1,032. The UC chairman also wrote to then Karachi mayor Wasim Akhtar, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Local Government Minister Nasir Hussain Shah and Korangi Deputy Commissioner Sheharyar Gul Memon, requesting them to take immediate action on the sewerage system in the area, as 90 per cent of Allahwala Town remained flooded with sewage.

He explained to the authorities how the area did not have any sewerage infrastructure at all, due to which its residents had dug sewage wells that were destroying the foundations of the buildings.

One of the residents of Allahwala Town shared that the building had collapsed because its foundation had been weakened due to rainwater and sewage accumulated in the basement for a long period of time. “The water wasn’t drained, despite multiple requests to the district administration,” the resident said.

The SBCA’s dangerous buildings director, Beenish Shabbir, told The News that the collapsed building was not their domain as it had been illegally constructed on an amenity plot.

The KDA, he said, must answer for China-cutting in the area. As for the adjoining buildings, he said those were also partially damaged in the incident and would be knocked down with the help of the district administration.

When the KDA director general, Asif Ikram, was asked about the incident, shifted all the blame to the SBCA. Talking to The News, he said that their job was to look after their plots, not the constructions on them.

“When it was being actually erected, what the SBCA was doing?” he asked, adding that he did not know about the builder and would look into the matter.

Meanwhile, KWSB Managing Director Khalid Sheikh said that it was the responsibility of the residential society to lay down its internal sewerage system.

Talking to The News, he said that residential societies in the city took charges for the sewerage and water systems, but they unfortunately never laid them down. The cooperative society’s registrar or secretary, he said, should look into the matter.

Meanwhile, Korangi Additional Deputy Commissioner Arshad Waris told The News that they had retrieved four bodies from the rubble. When asked about the builder, he said, they would inquire against him. “We have asked the SBCA to survey other buildings,” he added. The Korangi deputy commissioner and SBCA DG Ashkar Dawar did not respond to repeated phone calls by The News.

Commissioner’s briefing

The Karachi commissioner briefed the Sindh CM on the building collapse incident on Friday, informing him that the collapse occurred on a 80-square-yard plot which was divided into two smaller plots of 40 square yards each, where the ground-plus-three-storey building had been constructed, adds our correspondent.

The CM was informed that the building was constructed without the approval of the SBCA. He directed the commissioner to identify other vulnerable buildings in the area and get them vacated. It was pointed out that Allahwala Town was a private society and had no drainage system.

The commissioner said that 194 drainage lines had been choked in the city, of which 154 had been repaired, after which not only the issue of overflowing gutters had been resolved in most of the areas but rainwater had also been drained, except in a few areas that included Surjani Town and some villages of Malir. The CM was told that patch work on some of the dilapidated roads had been started. It was said that the works and services department had yet to start repair work on major roads of District Central, to which the CM directed the chief secretary to mobilise the works and services department for the purpose.

Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) Administrator Iftikhar Shallwani told the CM that he was working hard to serve the city. Shah told him that he wanted to make Karachi neat and clean, for which the KMC, District Municipal Corporations and Sindh Solid Waste Management Board need to work together.