Hush up and move on: Damaged building’s residents, owner reach settlement

CBF terms construction of five storeys on 99 square yards 'normal'

KARACHI: The five-storey residential building in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Block 10-A, which was evacuated on December 18 after it started to shake and cracks appeared on its walls, is yet to be completely demolished.

Rubble lies haphazardly outside the half-demolished structure, where labourers are trying to collect iron rods protruding from the broken walls.

Cantonment Board Faisal (CBF), which in 2010 gave permission for the construction of the five-storey building on a 99-square-yard plot, has reportedly mediated an agreement between the building owner Ejaz Hashmani and residents, without holding an inquiry to ascertain the cause of the incident.



One of the building's residents, Mujahid, told The Express Tribune they came to a settlement with the owner in presence of CBF officials. He said Hashmani assured residents he would reconstruct the building in less than 11 months.

And for those who wanted their money back, the owner handed them cheques, Mujahid informed.

A shop owner in the building, Shahbaz Khan, said he has got another shop in the same area, and Hashmani was paying the rent for that shop. The owner, according to Khan, would hand him over his old shop within 11 months, once the building was reconstructed.

He said the CBF as well as residents and the owner wanted the matter resolved amicably and quickly.

"Had we gone into legal and technical details, the matter would have lingered on," he said, adding that an agreement was inked with everyone's support in front of CBF and their National Assembly representative, Iqbal Muhammad Ali Khan.



According to shopkeeper Khan, CBF would soon approve the new building plan for reconstruction.

The issue of the under-construction penthouse on the building's roof, which apparently led to the building's partial collapse, is also conspicuous by its absence in the CBF-brokered settlement.

Earlier, The Express Tribune learnt that when the building was under-construction, the Central Government Cooperative Housing Society president Shahbaz Khan wrote to CBF about improper construction.

The letter read that the foundation is not strong enough for a high-rise building due to poor civil designs and use of substandard material. The letter further stated that the structure would not only endanger the lives of occupants but may also prove hazardous to the adjacent buildings. After the letter was written, Khan said a structure engineering team of CBF visited the site but the construction continued.

CBF chief executive officer Asif Amir confirmed that Hashmani has signed memorandum of association with all seven occupants of the building and has agreed to reconstruct it within 11 months. He explained that construction would only begin after they approve the new building plan.

"The builder will cover the rental costs of the occupants till the time their old homes are reconstructed," he said. When asked regarding the building's collapse, he said the penthouse seemed to be the immediate reason, adding that, according to him, it is feasible to construct a five-storey building on a 99-square yard plot.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 6^th, 2016.