Court orders compensation for victims of 2020 Karachi building collapse

A Karachi court has ordered the payment of compensation to the families of 27 individuals who lost their lives in a building collapse in 2020.

The Additional District and Sessions Judge of Central Karachi presided over the case involving the collapse that occurred in Rizvia Society. The court directed the building owners to pay diyat to the affected families.

Each victim's family is to receive Rs81,3595 as compensation. The court also stated that failure to pay the compensation would result in imprisonment for the defendants.

In March 2020, the Dr Jamal Fatima residential building collapsed in Gulbahar no 2, Rizvia Society. Around 27 people lost their lives, including eight women and three innocent children, while dozens were injured. The incident also affected surrounding buildings. The five-storey building was built illegally, claimed the authorities at the time.

Earlier the same year, the city administration directed the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) to vacate the 382 residential buildings declared ‘dangerous’.

The majority of the earmarked buildings are located in Saddar, where 295 residential buildings had been declared dangerous. Meanwhile, 44 buildings are in Lyari. Out of the 382 dangerous buildings, 339 were located in South district, 14 in East district and 10 in Central district.

SBCA official Askhar Dawar lamented that evacuation notices had been served to the buildings’ owners but they were not implementing the orders of the building control authority.

In response to the incident, the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) Director General Nasim-ul-Ghani Sahito had formed a three-member committee to investigate the cause of the building's collapse.

The committee, led by SBCA structure director Benish Shabbir, included SCBA (Baldia Town) Director Nadeem Ahmed and NED University Architecture and Planning Department head Noman Ahmed.

They were tasked with submitting a report, focusing on factors such as soil tests and the concrete's strength.

Preliminary investigations indicated that the builder, Mohammed Javed Khan, may have conducted major excavation work at the foundation and attempted to add additional pillars to support the structure, which allegedly led to the collapse.

Eyewitnesses reported that construction work on a fifth floor had commenced when the building began to crack.