Disaster mismanagement: No relief emerges from the rubble in Lyari

Residents ask for their valuables to be returned; two building owners have put the land on the property market.

KARACHI:

With no alternative accommodation and fears of similar catastrophes, around 100 families in Lyari Town who fled the area after a building collapse killed 34 are still homeless.

On August 4, one of the two blocks of the Qasr-e-Ruqaiyya residential complex in Moosa Lane collapsed.

The Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) demolished what remained of the block as well as an adjacent building, Amina Tahir Manzil, which was also severely affected. Another nearby building, Iqbal Manzil has yet to be served with a demolition notice. Its residents evacuated the building soon after the catastrophe, fearing that it might collapse as well.

Around 100 families are now homeless, with nothing to their name but lots of promises and hopes for rehabilitation. To boot, the district government has not returned many of the residents’ valuables - including a large amount of gold jewellery – which was recovered by rescue workers.

“The town administration promised that all the things will be handed over back to the residents when the work would be completed,” said Muhammad Yusuf, the widower of Razia Bibi who died in the building collapse. “They asked us to submit the claims which we did on September 22 but there is still no progress.”

Yusuf, who is a truck driver, has moved in with his six children to his brother’s residence in Agra Taj Colony. He submitted the compensation amount received from the government for his wife’s death – Rs200,000 - as a security deposit for a rental in the same neighbourhood.

Residents have formed a seven-member “Qasar-e-Ruqaiyya committee” headed by Prof Saleem Memon of the Al Khidmat Foundation. The other members of the committee include Muhammad Yousuf Moon, the president of welfare organisation Bazm-e-Muzammil, a former union councillor and four other local residents.

“It was not possible to deal with so many affected people,” said Lyari Town administrator Muhammad Raisi.  “We asked the residents to form a committee which would pursue their cases. Everybody agreed on  Memon as the head,” Raisi added.

Committee member Habibullah Niazi says Brigadier Anas Asad of the Army Engineering Corps had handed over all the valuables to the office of the Deputy Commissioner South where the items were listed and sealed with signatures of three committee members. “All the claim affidavits have also been submitted to the authorities but we are still waiting for them to call us for distribution,” said Niazi.

Kausar Mosque became a temporary home to a number of residents, including men, women, and children, during Ramazan. Others found shelter at the nearby Patni Hall and other houses in the vicinity.

But temporary housing can only help so much. Abdul Ghafoor cannot send his children to school because of limited resources. He works at the shipping yard and earns Rs300 per day. “I have lost everything along with my apartment.”

Ownership spats

The building he once called home was constructed around 40 years ago. It now requires an estimated Rs12.5 million for reconstruction, said Yousuf Moon. “In our three meetings with officials, they agreed to construct Qasr-e-Ruqaiyya, Amina Tahir and Iqbal Manzil on government expenses but on the condition that the pagri system will be annulled.”

Moon explained that the government wants to distribute ownership to the residents rather than the owners of the land, according to the number of apartments they had been residing in.  There has only been one positive response to the proposal. “The owner of Qasr-e-Ruqaiyaa, Abdul Shakoor, has agreed but the owners of Iqbal Manzil and Amina Tahir have been refusing to part with the ownership,” he added.

But the owners of Amina Tahir Manzil do not want to rebuild on the property. Muhammad Siddique Khatri, a retired sessions court judge told The Express Tribune, “My brother, sister and I are rightful owners of the space and we do not want to reconstruct the building.” Khatri is instead looking to sell the 311 square yard property, since he believes the market value of the land is around Rs20 million.

“Our building was in very sound condition and we can’t be held responsible if Qasr-e-Ruqaiyya fell over it,” Khatri said. Iqbal Manzil is also on the market. Its original residents will now be given Rs275,000 per single room.

“The owners can’t reconstruct the buildings with their own resources. So why do they expect the government to invest on their property?” said Ahmed Chinoy, the chief of the Citizens Police Liaison Committee (CPLC), who is heading a government committee for the rehabilitation of those affected by the disaster.

“We have received residents’ claims of valuables through Qasr-e-Ruqaiyya committee members, who volunteered for the cause of the residents. I hope everything will be returned to the owners after necessary verification,” said Chinoy. This is now scheduled for December 31.

He said that the Lyari Town administration had allocated an amount of Rs3 million for the reconstruction of buildings but hadn’t provided the money. “Many donors have also offered us funds for the reconstruction.”

Raisi believes that the town’s primary responsibility was to evacuate residents and provide them initial relief. He also clarified that the Rs3 million for reconstruction was announced by Karachi administrator Muhammad Hussain Syed and not by the town administration.

Committee member Habibullah Niazi, referring to a survey conducted by the committee, said that around 100 more buildings in Moosa Lane, Khadda Market, Baghdadi and Naya Abad are extremely rundown. “SBCA officials have turned a blind eye towards this state of affairs because the landlords feed them money,” he alleged.

The secretary of SBCA’s technical committee on dangerous buildings, Aqeel Ahmed Abidi, said the authority’s responsibility is to the point of serving an evacuation notice – the time that its special consultants declare any premises dangerous for residential use. “We can’t forcibly evacuate them because residents ask for an alternative place which doesn’t come in the authority’s control,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 29^th, 2011.