Though the Sindh government has placed the head of Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) under suspension following a building collapse in Karachi that claimed lives of 27 residents, it has yet to come up with a fool-proof plan aimed at forestalling the occurrence of building collapse incidents in the ongoing monsoon season in particular. Karachi, a city of teeming millions, now seems to have millions of small and tall mutlistoried structures.
Needless to say, building collapses are common in the country’s largest city where construction standards are either poorly enforced or not enforced at all. Cost-cutting is achieved by using substandard materials and ignoring safety regulations. The concerned regulatory department’s performance is characterized by corruption, incompetence, inefficiency and lack of empathy.
According to the Sindh government, there are 51 buildings in Karachi that are “extremely fragile and should be demolished”. My questions are: why aren’t they doing it already? Why are they delaying?
Maimoona Sattar (Karachi)
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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