The Sindh High Court has directed the director general of the Sindh Building Control Authority to convene a meeting with the civil defence department and chief fire officer to discuss the possibility of amending building regulations in order to address fire safety issues. The court was informed that task forces had been constituted at divisional, district and sub-divisional level for inspection of buildings and industries/factories and to ensure the implementation of all fire safety measures. When a two-judge bench headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar took up a petition seeking implementation of the Building Code of Pakistan and Fire Safety Provisions 2016 across the province, Metropolitan Commissioner Afzal Zaidi submitted that 30 out-of-order fire tenders had been sent for necessary repair while the federal authorities would provide 48 such vehicles since currently only 14 fire tenders were working in the provincial metropolis. The divisional engineer of the National Telecommunication Corporation Karachi informed the bench that after its last order, they reactivated the helpline number of the fire brigade, which was said to be out of order after heavy rain in the city. A compliance report was also placed before the bench by a task force regarding mechanism to carry out inspection of different buildings and industrial units and ensure implementation of fire safety laws. The bench was further informed that in pursuance of its last order, besides an existing telephone line, two more such numbers had been installed at the Karachi commissioner office to receive complaints about fire incidents. SBCA’s director-environment and buildings Nadeem Ahmed also filed a compliance report along with a copy of the Karachi Building & Town Planning Regulations, 2002 stating that there were some provisions in the regulations about fire safety precautions. However, he submitted that the SBCA had also adopted the Building Code of Pakistan and Fire Safety Provisions and the DG had also approached the director of the civil defence regarding inspection of multistorey buildings.
