Bending the rules

It is not hard to understand why the much-vaunted campaign to demolish all unapproved additional floors of apartment and commercial buildings in Hyderabad has been halted. Such drives are bound to get on the wrong side of someone either rich and powerful, or someone who has a large stake in the interests of the building mafias operating in major cities and towns. No matter how determined or resolute the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) had been in its desire to shield its campaign from such vested interests, it was always going to be a losing battle. And this time the demolition campaign wasn’t even sidetracked by a court injunction.  Instead, it was the local government minister who orchestrated the move in the earnest belief that it was possible to negotiate a solution with a committee of builders and regularise the structures whose [building law] violations were within the permissible limits. Perhaps that could work.

At the moment, there are believed to be at least 100 buildings in Hyderabad where unauthorised construction of additional floors has taken place. Earlier this month, the authorities issued demolition notices to over two dozen builders on their unauthorised upper floors and gave them a day to comply with the order themselves or face punitive action. Five buildings in Latifabad which had illegally constructed upper floors were initially targeted for dismantling. Injunctions were obtained by a dozen or more builders against any act of demolition while others pleaded for time to comply with the orders.

An official of the Association of Builders and Developers of Pakistan (Abad) in Hyderabad has suggested there might be an ulterior motive for the SBCA campaign: extorting money from builders on the pretext of regulations. Whether this is true or not, Hyderabad has seen a rapid growth in high-rise buildings over the last decade and most of that has happened at the cost of bending the rules.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 22^nd, 2017.

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