SBCA earns a bad name due to illegal constructions, concedes LG minister

Sindh Information and Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah has conceded that the entire institution of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) has earned a bad name due to the issue of illegal constructions in the province.

He made this admission while chairing a meeting of the authority in Karachi on Tuesday. The minister asked the SBCA officials to speed up action against illegal constructions, assuring them that the government would provide utmost assistance in this regard.

A mass campaign should be launched against illegal constructions in the province, he said, directing the SBCA officials to implement the relevant decisions of the Supreme Court in letter and spirit.

Shah said the relevant officials of the authority were under a strict obligation to report any illegal constructions in their jurisdictions; otherwise, they would be considered to have been involved in constructing unauthorised buildings.

He made it clear that no one was above the law, and the Sindh government or the Pakistan Peoples Party had never patronised the menace of illegal constructions. “A criminal case should be lodged against whoever is involved in illegal constructions.”

The minister suggested that district-level committees should be made functional to prevent illegal constructions in Sindh. He directed the SBCA officials to get support from the police, Rangers, and district administration to prevent the construction of illegal buildings.

He lamented that multi-storey buildings having up to eight floors had been constructed on smaller residential plots, and that such buildings collapsed too often, causing harm to humans and damage to property. He said that there was also a need to improve the building by-laws governing the working of the SBCA for preventing illegal constructions in the province.