Illegal construction

Encroachments are rarely properly investigated, the connivance of local police officials is always in the findings

Decades of government failure at all levels to address illegal construction is perhaps best illustrated in cities such as Islamabad, where even the areas around local courts have been encroached — and that too by lawyers. Meanwhile, several government departments — most notably law enforcement and security agencies — regularly encroach on state land, making it hypocritical, at the very least, to expect these agencies to address encroachment by other public or private entities. In fact, on the rare occasions that encroachments are properly investigated, the connivance of local police officials is always in the findings.

This is why we have low expectations about the Sindh High Court’s recent push to ensure the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) has police stations in every provincial district. While the goal is to make it easier for SBCA to register cases, the new stations will still be manned by the same Sindh police officials who have expertly failed to enforce laws in the past, and keep finding innovative ways to let the beneficiaries of their failings enrich themselves. Despite regular court intervention, SBCA and other government authorities have not been able to enforce basic safety-related laws. Courts have also been critical of the SBCA’s reliance on the courts to retroactively sort out problems, instead of being proactive and making sure the problems are nipped in the bud.

At the same time, the SBCA has a novel workaround to make its own poor performance harder to check — keep all sorts of public information from the public. Almost no information is available on the authority’s website for cities other than Karachi, and even the information that is available is astoundingly difficult to sift through. Also, because of the lack of easily accessible data, it is hard for utility providers to verify any SBCA-approval documents before hooking up their lines. Even a concerted push to improve online data availability and searchability would create a significant hurdle for those involved in the illegal construction business.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17^th, 2024.

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