As people continue to be evacuated from nearby structures following a deadly building collapse in Karachi’s congested Lyari neighbourhood that left 27 people dead, Sindh Senior Minister Sharjeel Memon said on Wednesday it would not be possible for the government to provide housing to all residents living in dilapidated buildings.
The five-storey building on Fida Husain Shaikha Road in Lea Market collapsed on Friday morning, with the rescue operations concluding on Sunday. The building had already been declared uninhabitable by authorities due to its dilapidated structure, with the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) saying it had issued multiple prior notices to residents to vacate the structure since 2023.
Speaking to GeoNews, Memon said that there were 740 dilapidated buildings across Sindh, out of which 51 were in “extremely dangerous” condition, out of which 11 buildings had been vacated.
“Orders have been issued to vacate the others in the next 48 hours for residents’ safety,” Memon said.
“However, it won’t be possible for the government to provide housing to all residents living in dilapidated buildings,” the minister said, adding that there was no such law obligating the government to do so.
“Nonetheless, the government in the past had provided temporary shelters to flood victims and Covid-19 patients for quarantine,” he added.
“Whatever space is available with the government, we will provide that for housing to the most deserving residents who have no other option available [for housing].”
Memon’s comments come a day after the Sindh government announced the suspension of SBCA Director General Ishaque Khuhro over the building collapse.
According to Local Government (LG) Minister Saeed Ghani, other SBCA officials who were suspended included the director, deputy director and building inspectors assigned to Lyari. He also noted that the Sindh government has announced Rs1 million in compensation to the families of the 27 deceased people.
Major opposition parties — the PTI, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and Jamaat-i-Islami — have condemned the PPP’s Sindh government, the SBCA and other authorities, accusing them of “criminal negligence” that led to the disaster.
They not only demanded compensation and alternative residences for the affected families but also called for the registration of manslaughter cases against the officials responsible for the tragedy.
Previous deadly building collapses
In April, a 10-year-old girl died when a three-storey building in Bhains Colony suddenly collapsed, while a man and a woman were pulled alive from the debris.
In October 2023, five people were killed and four others injured when an under-construction building collapsed in Shah Faisal Colony.
The city witnessed two such incidents within 72 hours in September 2020, claiming the lives of at least three people and injuring over a dozen.
Lyari also faced a similar incident in June 2020, when 22 people were killed after a five-storey residential building housing about 40 apartments collapsed.
A building collapse in Karachi’s Gulbahar area in March 2020 killed 27 people. A similar 2011 incident in Lyari’s Musa Lane neighbourhood took 33 lives.