TO continue on and on with the rather tedious — and to many boring — subject of the dangers posed to life and limb of the 14-odd millions who live and subsist in Karachi by the thousands of illegally constructed, dangerous buildings is, unfortunately, necessary. A constant drumming may awaken someone sitting at the very top echelons of power in Islamabad — President General Pervez Musharraf or his immediate underlings, the fountainhead whence all action springs.

But, the people of Karachi are warned that for the present it is up to them to do what is necessary to safeguard their lives and properties because this present government clearly is not capable of protecting them.

During the time Mohammadmian Soomro was governor of Sindh, he was influenced, or ‘persuaded’, by the greedy and unscrupulous amongst us to promulgate an ordinance which overnight transformed illegally and poorly constructed unsafe buildings into ‘safe’ buildings. Now, as the chairman of our ‘august’ Senate, sitting safely in Islamabad, earlier this month he disallowed a question posed by PPP Senator Enver Baig on the subject of Karachi’s high-rises. Could this be due to a guilty conscience?

A news item in the Metropolitan section of this newspaper yesterday told us the story. Senator Baig “submitted a question to the Senate secretariat on November 7 asking Minister of Housing and Works Syed Safwanullah to provide the ‘information about the number of high-rise NOCs given to the builders of Karachi since January 2005 to date’. The Senator also asked the minister to ‘provide copies of all NOCs and completion certificates and names of the builders with complete postal addresses, telephone numbers and names of the chief executives.’ On November 19, Mr Baig received a letter from the Senate secretariat informing him that the Senate chairman had disallowed the question, as it ‘pertained to the provincial government’...”.The letter was signed by section officer Mohammad Anwar.

Such is the concern exhibited by a good Sindhi for the welfare of the people of the largest city of his country and province.

Senator Baig’s best bet would be to raise the question again in the Senate at a time when the honourable chairman is elevated to acting president of the country and is absent from his seat. It may again be dodged, but it is worth a try. But in realistic terms, the story has ended.

A second item in this paper in the same section yesterday was headed ‘SHC orders inquiry against KBCA men’. A petition had been filed by the owners of three flats in Sharjah Centre, Saddar, against the sealing of their flats by the Karachi Building Control Authority which had suddenly, after 12 years, awoken to the fact that the flats were actually occupying the space reserved for parking in the approved plan. The petition, pleading irreparable and irreversible loss, was heard on November 25 by Justices Mushir Alam and Amir Hani Muslim. When the Bench asked why the flats were now being sealed, they were told by the KBCA counsel that “the respondent Authority had no option but to act in accordance with the law and rules. The flats were in gross violation of the building rules and the Authority would be accused of dereliction of duty if it took no action.”

The Bench rightly remarked that the action had been taken at a rather late stage, after the purchasers had taken possession of the property. This was explained by the petitioners’ counsel. The “violations occurred and were hitherto ignored due to complicity between the builder-developer and the KBCA officials concerned.”

As these concerned officials were “not traceable from the record,” the Bench directed the Anti-Corruption Establishment to find the men and proceed against them. What do the petitioners do now? What can they do?

As an illustration of how the law and order machinery in Karachi works, one can do no better than to take the example of the three uncompleted buildings which illegally stand joined together as one unit, at the Teen Talwar corner. In these uncompleted rickety buildings, on the lower floors, are many shopping malls in which hundreds (if not thousands) visit and shop each day. The unit also contains a ‘university’ of fashion design where some 200 students study.

In 1992, a number of affected and aggrieved citizens filed two constitutional petitions in the High Court of Sindh (CP 1084/92 and CP 3007/92), one in May and one in December, against the builders and the KBCA. They were filed by Barrister Mohammad Gilbert Naim-ur-Rahman, then a sprightly lawyer in the prime of his life who had just turned 57. The judgments were delivered in December 2004 when Gilbert had lost some of his sprightliness, though he is still full of life at 70.

These judgments leave much to be desired — such is our justice system. An appeal will have to be filed by the surviving aggrieved and affected citizens (many have moved on to greener pastures over these 12 long years). The matter will linger in the courts for another dozen or so years and by that time who knows what may transpire, who knows whether they will remain standing, who knows what damage to life and limb may be caused through some unforeseen act of nature? These buildings, joined at the hip, present a hazard, and all who enter or inhabit them do so at the risk of life and limb. But which authority can or cares to warn them?

In Islamabad, the Capital Development Authority has acted. It has issued a ‘final notice’ for ‘Attention All Private/Public Institutions in the Islamabad Region’ which was inserted in the national press yesterday. It is the responsibility of the CDA to ensure that buildings within the Islamabad capital territory are built lawfully and that they are safe enough to house people living in this earthquake-prone zone. As a result of the earthquake many Islamabad buildings “have developed cracks in various parts of their structures which are required to be repaired before re-occupancy.” To prevent “any further untoward incident and loss of life” the Authority has now required that “all Private and Public Institutions/Schools/Colleges operating in the ICT are hereby finally directed to render a certificate of safety of their buildings by December 3, 2005.” If they don’t, then what?

Let us hope the Authority is serious and in earnest, and will stick to its word.

Email: arfc@cyber.net.pk