KARACHI: No arrest has been made in connection with a criminal case registered against builder, owner and government officials regarding the illegal construction of 15-storey Nasla Tower as the pace of investigation appears to be slow, it emerged on Wednesday.

While raids had been conducted and ‘visits’ to the office of the Sindh Building Control Authority made by investigating agencies — police and Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) — what came as a strange course of investigation was its slow and leisurely pace to find out the real culprits and then seeking assistance to identify the suspects from the same institution which is under the radar for all the illegalities carried out in raising the building.

A police investigation team led by SP Altaf Hussain along with officials of the ACE visited the SBCA office in Civic Centre, met its senior officers and sought a list of those who were part of the authority when the layout plan of Nasla Tower was approved.

Investigators pay a visit to head office of SBCA

“We have sought a list from the SBCA and names of those officials who were here at time the [Nasla Towr] building was approved,” SP Hussain said while talking to reporters after the visit.

“The police teams are also carrying out raids on the homes of the SBCA officers concerned. The SBCA officials today provided us some details and documents and we are closely analysing all these things. We have also sought record from the Sindhi Muslim Cooperative Housing Society. Things would start gathering pace soon,” he said.

The Ferozabad police on Tuesday lodged an FIR against the owner of the plot where the Nasla Tower was raised, a builder and all those officials of different government agencies and private organisations who helped and facilitated the illegal construction of the multi-storey residential building off main Sharea Faisal.

The police investigation came following the orders from the Supreme Court regarding registration of an FIR against SBCA officials. It had also directed the Karachi commissioner to complete the demolition of the 15-storey building within a week and asked the official assignee to attach the land in order to compensate the affected residents as the builders did not come forward to refund the residents money.

However, as told by the police authorities, it seems that the process would take some time to identify, trace and then arrest the people behind the illegal construction of the building.

A late-night raid, police sources told Dawn, on the house of a former assistant director of the SBCA had failed to achieve any success.

“Safdar Magsi was the assistant director of the SBCA when the construction of the Nasla Tower was approved,” said a source while denying the impression of a laid-back approach of the law enforcement agency.

“His home was raided, but he was not there. There are some 25 to 30 SBCA officials who are suspected for their role in facilitating and helping the illegal activity and deliberating ignoring violation of defined rules for vested interests,” he said. “Although the police have sought the SBCA’s help in gathering data and names, they are also doing their job on their own without relying on any individual or institution.”

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2021