The nation is still reeling from the earthquake earlier this week, and the death toll is rising. The time is now to identify what can be done to mitigate future disasters. One such area that demands immediate attention is the city of lights.
“Karachi is the most vulnerable city in Pakistan,” NESPAK Vice President Tahir Shamshad told BR Research in an interview published in today’s Brief Recording section. “Just 150 km west of Karachi is a triple junction; a confluence of three plates. Such a triple junction is present in only two places in the world – Los Angeles and Karachi.”
In this triple junction, the Arabian plate and Indian plate are both subducted under the Eurasian plate. The plate boundary starts from Kirthar National Park, runs along the Indus and goes into Afghanistan. The Quetta earthquake of 1935 also occurred on this line.
Karachi and Islamabad are classified as the same in terms of magnitude of earthquake – zone 2B, which is 7-plus in magnitude.
“Karachi’s vulnerability is greater because it’s an old city. The influx of people happened because of the migration, and the houses weren’t planned properly, whereas Islamabad is a planned city.” Shamshad said. “How many people in Karachi live in high-rise buildings or in properly designed houses?”
Then, there’s an even bigger problem; even in the instances where the appropriate building code has been followed in Karachi, the seismic provisions in that code were never present. Up until the 70s, Pakistan followed the British building code, but Britain doesn’t even have earthquakes! Their code doesn’t have the best of seismic provisions. So, from 1947 up until the late 70s, all designing that was done under this code does not have the appropriate seismic provisions.
Given that it’s an old city with a concrete jungle of old and unplanned buildings, Karachi is highly vulnerable to earthquakes. An area-wise study needs to be done on the buildings in Pakistan’s most heavily populated city.
The building codes in Pakistan have always been a quagmire, and this column will publish a separate piece on that matter soon.
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