Staff Reporter
The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation has suspended all its anti-encroachment operations in Karachi amid the coronavirus outbreak. This was confirmed by Bashir Siddiqui, the senior director at KMC anti-encroachment department. He said that the KMC suspended all activities from Wednesday. They will remain suspended till further notice. Siddiqui said that the Sindh government has already announced the closure of government offices for 15 days from March 19, but a proper notification has yet to be issued. “Right now, we are not in a position to frame any particular time period of the suspension, but it will remained suspended for 15 days in the first phase,” Siddiqui said. He said markets, shopping malls, hotels and restaurants in Karachi have already closed after the orders of the Sindh government. There is no need to conduct anti-encroachment operations as with the closure of markets and other public places, encroachments can’t be seen on the roads, he said. The Sindh Building Control Authority, however, has decided to continue its demolition operation against illegal constructions in Karachi. No demolition took place in Karachi on Wednesday. SBCA Demolition Squad incharge Ali Mehdi Kazmi said that they are not in a position to suspend demolitions as it is high time action is taken against illegal constructions. “The SBCA demolition squad is in its full swing after the Rizvia building collapse incident and we cannot afford to stop the demolition operations despite the coronavirus pandemic,” he said. Kazmi said if SBCA stops, it will be an opportunity for the builder mafia to complete or re-construct their illegal sites by taking full advantage of the situation. He said that the nature of the SBCA demolition operations is different from other departments like KMC and KDA as those departments are removing encroachments from roads and footpaths but the SBCA is demolishing illegal structures.
