Four-storey building’s staircase collapses

Earlier, SBCA placed banner outside building declaring it dangerous

KARACHI: The staircase of an 80-year-old four-storey building, Ruqyah Manzil, located near Pakistan Chowk, collapsed in the wee hours of Monday, trapping around four families inside for almost 14 hours.

The families, however, refused to be rescued until they were compensated by the owner of the building. Almost a week ago, the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) had declared the structure dangerous. The staircase collapsed from the second floor, due to which residents living on the second, third and fourth floors were trapped. The flats were rented on the 'pagri system'.

Ali Asghar, who lives in the building adjacent to Ruqyah Manzil, told The Express Tribune that the residents had paid around Rs0.6 million to the owner for living there along with paying Rs600 as rent monthly. He said most of these buildings have been declared hazardous by the SBCA. When the resident wants to leave the apartment, they can sell it and a percentage of the sum goes to the landlord.

Asghar recalled that at around 3am on Monday morning, they felt tremors, after which the staircase collapsed. "The building is so fragile that when anyone used to walk on the staircase it would creak," he claimed, adding that the residents of the building had to be very careful while stepping on that staircase.

According to Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) sub-fire officer Zafar Ahmed, they reached the spot at around 4am. "When we entered the building, the residents refused to be rescued until they were compensated with the amount they had paid to the building's owner or given an alternative spaces to live in," he said. Ahmed added that he tried his best to convince the families to leave the building. A resident of a nearby building, Saifuddin, said the gallery of his apartment collapsed around two years back during heavy rainfall. "I rented the apartment for Rs0.5 million and was never returned any amount by the owner," he said.

Negotiations with owner

Later in the evening, Ahmed said that three residents of the building came down through the snorkel and went to the South deputy commission's office for negotiations with the owner of the building. It was decided that the owner will pay Rs0.15 million to each of the 16 families living in the building. After the negotiations, the trapped residents were rescued at around 7pm. However, the families demanded new residence, staging a protest outside Ruqyah Manzil. No SBCA official was present on the site of the incident or was available for comments.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29^th, 2016.