HYDERABAD: Any building deemed dangerous or beyond repair must be vacated immediately and demolished if necessary.

These instructions were passed by Hyder­abad Dep­u­ty Commiss­ioner (DC) Zainul Abid­een Memon on Tuesday while presiding over a meeting aimed at initiating action against the buildings in the city whose structures are very likely to collapse.

Anything that jeopardised people’s lives would not be tolerated, obser­ved the meeting attended by deputy directors of the Sindh Buil­d­ing Con­trol Au­­thority (SBCA), muni­c­ipal commissioner of the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (HMC) and assistant commissioners (ACs) of all talukas.

The DC said that 74 buildings were identified as hazardous last year. Later some of them were repaired, but still many posed serious risk to human lives.

All ACs were directed to coordinate with the SBCA to update the list of such buildings and conduct rapid field sur­veys to identify hazardous structures quickly.

The SBCA officials informed the meeting that despite issuance of notices, many buildings had not been evacuated yet.

The DC said evacuations must be carried out with the police support and FIRs must be lodged in accordance with the SBCA regulations if residents did not cooperate. Assuring full police security, he said the issue of shortage of machinery would be addressed.

The DC announced that the next review meeting would be held on July 14 when updated lists and photographic inspection reports would be made available.

He stated that no dangerous building would remain intact; legal action would be taken wherever necessary and steps would be implemented to ensure publicsafety.

Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2025