KARACHI: Sindh Minister for Information and Wildlife Syed Nasir Hussain Shah on Monday said that there were more than 300 buildings in Karachi which were in a very dilapidated condition.
He was speaking to reporters while visiting the site in Lyari where a five-storey residential building collapsed on Sunday, killing four people and injuring many.
He said that notices warning the occupants in rundown buildings to vacate immediately had had no effect so far as they had nowhere to go, however, talks between them and the government for the provision of alternative accommodation were underway and added that legislation was also being enacted to assure the occupants of such buildings that if they were vacated, alternative accommodation would be provided to them.
He requested the people to immediately vacate any building identified as old and dilapidated if it was possible, adding that, the only purpose of these notices of SBCA was to protect the precious lives.
He said that Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Syed Murad Ali Shah had already issued clear instructions in this regard whereas heavy machinery had been delivered to the affected area, with the help of which the work of lifting debris was in progress, but as the area consisted of very narrow streets, it might take some time to remove the debris.
He said that if there was any negligence on the part of Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) officials behind this tragic incident, it would not be tolerated and further clarified that in order to stop illegal practices, the Sindh government had approved separate courts for SBCA while the apex court had been approached for appointments in these courts.
He said that strict action had been taken against hundreds of SBCA officials in the past for allowing illegal construction of buildings, adding that, various steps had also been taken to curb such illegal and dangerous practices in the future.
Shah said that black sheep were part of every institution, but the government of Sindh, especially the Sindh Local Government Department was striving to expel these black sheep from the SBCA once and forever.
Revealing that demolition of illegal buildings in Karachi was in full swing, he added that SBCA officers had been informed that they would be held responsible for illegal construction in their area.
Commenting about US blogger Cynthia Richie’s rape allegations on Pakistani politicians, the minister said that such people were launched to issue baseless statements and allegations in order to divert the public’s attention from persisting main issues.
He said that people were entangled in unnecessary matters through such events.
“This is the time when we should talk about taking action against those involved in the sugar scandal and focus on measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in the country by avoiding talking about unnecessary matters,” he added.
He said that the Sindh government was always associated with the Omni group and a few people kept saying that it had given the most subsidy on sugar to this particular group while the reality was totally different.
“The fact of the matter is that the Sindh government had given only 15 per cent of the total subsidy to the Omni group while 85 per cent subsidy was given to sugar mills of other groups, including Jahangir Tareen and Khusro Bakhtiar,” he said, concluding that Sindh’s subsidies were only aimed at benefiting farmers.
