At least three people were killed when a three-storey residential building collapsed in Jaffer Tayar Society of Malir area in Karachi on Monday morning. The local people soon initiated relief activities, retrieving injured from the debris on their own, only to be joined by emergency agencies personnel as late as three hours after the incident.
Later, a contingent of the Pakistan Army, rescuers, policemen and Rangers personnel also arrived on the scene with heavy machinery to remove the rubble.
The building had collapsed in the early hours of Monday. According to police and rescue sources, three families with a total of 20 to 25 people lived in the thirty-year-old building. Locals believed that around 12 people were trapped inside the collapsed building. Three bodies including a woman were said to be retrieved from the rubble so far while three more injured had been rescued and transferred to hospital.
Collapse likely caused by construction nearby: rescue officials
An injured child was also recovered from the debris while there were fears of more casualties.
Officials believed that a house being constructed adjacent to the building might have contributed to its collapse.
Sindh Chief Minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah, took serious notice of the incident and directed the Karachi Commissioner to supervise the rescue operation, and submit a detailed report on the incident.
Sindh Governor, Imran Ismail, has also directed the Karachi commissioner to make use of all resources to expedite the rescue operation. He ordered that human lives should be saved at all costs and held the poor performance of the Karachi Building Control Authority and Malir Development Authority responsible for these tragedies.
Sindh Governor plays the blame game; accuses PPP govt of negligence
He also accused that the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government in Sindh was responsible for the abysmal state of these institutions and questioned the absence of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) from the site.
Karachi Commissioner Iftikhar Shalwani briefed media persons that rescue agencies and police officers were present at the scene but the debris of the collapsed structure could be only removed by following a standard procedure. The authorities are busy trying to remove the rubble in a manner that would retrieve all people trapped underneath, he added, but the narrow alleys of the neighbourhood were difficult for heavy machinery to pass through.
Sindh Labour Minister, Ghulam Murtaza Baloch, claimed that the body of the owner of the building had been recovered yet there were more people underneath the building.
He added that rescuers, officials and machinery had reached the spot but their rescue operations were obstructed by the locals crowding the area.
Sindh Minister for Local Government, Saeed Ghani, believed that it was not the absence of safety laws that led to such serious events but the issue at hand was the enforcement of these laws.
Published in Daily Times, February 26th 2019.
