The collapsed building is a microcosm for the state of the city. The Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) issued four evacuation notices since 2023, declaring the structure “dangerous”, yet no effort was ever made to get the residents to move. Utilities remained connected, and residents were never offered alternate housing, while officials were allegedly enriching themselves in return for ignoring violations.
The SBCA has asserted that their officials did everything they were supposed to, but other departments and the building’s residents refused to cooperate or listen. Even if the SCBA was truthful, it is only saying that corruption and dereliction of duty occurred in other government departments.
Meanwhile, criticising the building inmates for failing to follow eviction orders when they may have nowhere else to go is problematic. Governments at every level in Pakistan have failed to provide affordable housing in any major city, so much so that even most municipal employees can’t even afford to live in the city they work for, and a significant number of those who do live in the city wind up in slums or other substandard housing.
The SBCA has identified approximately 588 buildings as unsafe, and more dubious construction projects continue to emerge, sometimes without the necessary approvals. Fixing this problem before building disasters become even more commonplace requires prosecution of the complicit, regardless of their political weight; modernising building laws; and massive investment in public housing. The government also needs to take a cue from several countries that discourage property speculation to bring down prices to levels where people can actually afford to live where they work.