Staff Reporter
The Sindh government decided to establish a separate authority to develop a master plan
for the urban areas and other regions in the province.A meeting chaired by Sindh Chief Secretary Syed
Mumtaz Ali Shah was held in Karachi. A draft bill titled the 'Sindh Urban and Regional Master Plan
Authority; has been finalised and forwarded to the Sindh law department.The bill would now be
presented by the Sindh local government secretary in a meeting of the Sindh cabinet. Once passed, the
law would separate the master plan department from the Sindh Building Control Authority
(SBCA).Karachi Commissioner Iftikhar Shallwani informed the meeting that buildings were being
constructed illegally in old areas of the city. He said that people had been constructing up to five-storey
buildings in the metropolis. He further told the participants of the meeting that the construction of
illegal buildings was yet to be stopped despite a recent incident of a building collapse in Timber Market,
leaving the residents without a shelter. Separately, the SBCA director general told the meeting that the
building in question in Timber Market area had been declared unsafe for living prior to the incident,
however, the occupants had refused to vacate it. He said the old areas of the city still had 382
dangerous buildings and advertisements had been published in newspapers to make people aware of
the issue. The Sindh chief secretary then asked the relevant officials to take due lawful action against the
builders responsible for the construction of unsafe buildings in the city. Last month a six-storey building
in the metropolis' Ranchore Lane area collapsed after it started leaning sideways before crumbling to
dust.
