THIS is with reference to the editorial ‘Building collapse’ (July 5), which rightly stressed that the tragic deaths caused by the recent building collapses in Lyari and other parts of Karachi were perfectly avoidable. However, beyond the surface lies a deeper malaise, the unchecked and arbitrary powers of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA).

SBCA officials have become powerful arbiters of fate for countless citizens. When they want to permit a building, legal or otherwise, they do so with alarming ease. Files move fast, maps get approved overnight, and construction begins without hindrance, often with the connivance of officials who look the other way for a price. Yet, when demolition is ordered, often selectively and without consistent criteria, the same authority acts swiftly and ruthlessly, sometimes without offering residents any resettlement or relief.

This dual nature of SBCA’s role as a facilitator of unsafe construction and agent of destruction has contributed significantly to the city’s growing crisis of dangerous buildings.

If these buildings were really declared hazardous earlier, why were they allowed to stand for so long? Why were lives not protected through timely action? And, most importantly, who allowed these structures to be built in the first place?

It is no secret that corruption, political interference and systemic negligence have together hollowed out Karachi’s urban planning regime. The poor residents who die under concrete and steel are merely numbers in a recurring tragedy, while the real culprits remain untouched, their roles uninvestigated, and their huge fortunes intact.

A serious and independent judicial inquiry must be initiated into the causes of these building collapses, and also into the SBCA’s role in the approval and over- sight of such structures. The people of Karachi deserve transparency, account-ability and, above all, safety.

Unless we treat this as more than just an engineering failure, and confront the governance rot at its heart, the matter will continue to gobble up lives.

Muhammad Anwar Ul Haque
Karachi

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2025