Buildings at risk

How many more lives must be lost before the authorities in Sindh begin treating fire safety as a matter of public survival rather than administrative procedure? According to the latest findings of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority, hundreds of buildings remain dangerous while thousands await re-inspection. In Karachi alone, 162 buildings remain non-compliant with fire safety requirements, while 486 buildings across the province have been classified as high-risk. The Gul Plaza tragedy earlier this year should have been sufficient to shake the provincial administration out of its complacency.

Sindh's problem is not an absence of regulations or even awareness of the risks. It is the entrenched culture of negligence that allows unsafe buildings to remain operational while authorities satisfy themselves with issuing notices and conducting inspections. The consequences of such indifference are borne not by the officials responsible for enforcement but by ordinary citizens. That more than 2,200 buildings were still awaiting re-inspection when the latest figures were reported illustrates the unacceptable pace of corrective action. An audit should be the beginning of enforcement, not an achievement in itself. The Sindh government must establish strict deadlines for compliance and ensure that buildings posing an immediate threat are not permitted to operate until essential safety measures have been installed. Building owners who disregard notices must face meaningful penalties, while officials who fail to enforce regulations should be held equally accountable.

There can be little justification for continued inaction when the dangers have already been documented. The provincial administration has enough evidence to determine where intervention is most urgently required. What it now needs is the will to act against violations, regardless of the commercial interests involved. Public safety cannot remain subordinate to bureaucratic convenience or the profits of negligent building owners.