British-era building’s balcony collapses
An aerial view of Karachi city. PHOTO: AFP
Balcony of an apartment on the top floor of a dilapidated four-storey old residential building in the Haqqani Chowk area came crashing to the ground with a loud sound on the night between Monday and Tuesday.
Police and rescue services rushed to the British-era Zahra Manzil in the old city area within the limits of the Arambagh police station.
Arambagh Assistant Commissioner Nida Suman also reached the site and supervised the rescue operation.
A Rescue 1122 snorkel was called in to bring down a woman and her two daughters from a window side. No casualties were reported as a result of the accident.
There are a total of 34 flats in the affected four-storey building. The building is owned by a person named Ali Asghar.
Hatim, a resident of the affected building, said that it is an old and very dilapidated building. He has been living in this building with his family for the past 15 years.
Hatim said that most of the residents of the building have got flats under the Pagdi (goodwill) system in which a huge amount is paid as pagdi or advance and the monthly rent remains a nominal sum.
Ali Asghar, the owner of the building, was asked several times about the dilapidated condition of the building, but he never paid any heed to the demand of residents and did not carry out the much needed repairs.
Other residents also made similar complaints against the building owner. The residents said that they do not have enough income to buy a flat in a new building, so they have no other option but to live in such a building risking their lives.
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Assistant Commissioner Nida Suman said that the balcony was in a dilapidated condition, that is why it collapsed. There are many such buildings in the Old City including Burns Road, Arambagh and Kharadar. The affected building is an ancient British era building. She will also check the status of the building to see if the building was declared uninhabitable by the Sindh Building Control Authority or not. All four floors of the affected building will be checked. If the building is in a dangerous condition, notices will be issued to the occupants to vacate.
She said that in order to protect human lives, whenever notices are issued to the occupants of a building to vacate the building, they bring a stay order from the court in less than 24 hours and the Karachi administration is forced not to take action due to court order.
She said that whenever a building or part of it collapses in the Old City area, it is immediately blamed on the district administration. Nobody talks about the constraints we face.
She said that despite all these constraints, we will continue our work and try to save human lives.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 6th, 2023.