Petitioner told to submit record of buildings crumbled due to engineers’ non-appointment

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday directed a petitioner to place the complete record of buildings that had crumbled due to non-appointment of structural engineers in the approval of building plans.

The direction came on a petition of Khawaja Mohammad Asghar who sought a declaration that the buildings control authorities’ practice of not associating structural engineers with architects in the approval of building plans was illegal.

The petitioner submitted in the plea that despite a lapse of 40 years since the promulgation of the Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) Act, architects had not been engaging the structural engineers with the connivance of the building control authorities, putting the engineering profession to an irreparable loss.

He submitted that the Section 27 of the law made it mandatory to associate a consulting engineer of the PEC, who must be a structural engineer, to provide foundation, plinth, super-structure etc. for the building.

The petitioner submitted that without combination of structural engineers, it could not be possible to raise structure over the architectural plans, which more or less dealt with space utilisation and art — things not in the purview of engineers.

The SHC was asked to order association of structural engineers in all the building works and activities under the jurisdiction of the PEC irrespective of the size of plots in true compliance with the PEC Act.

The petitioner also informed the high court that buildings had crumbled to the ground due to non-appointment of engineers. A division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Irfan Saadat Khan directed the petitioner to place the complete record of the buildings that had crumbled due to non-appointment of engineers as alleged by him.