THE maladministration of PIA Society Phase I in Karachi is causing serious problems to the residents. Since February 2021, the society has been a victim of undue, unjust, blatant and wrongful interference in its internal affairs by the provincial Cooperative Department.

As such, for more than two years — from January 2021 to May 2023 — there was a musical chair of four so-called administrators, who mismanaged the affairs to such an extent that when they reluctantly left in May 2023, after being forced by the court to conduct long-due elections to run the society, there was a huge pile-up of unpaid utility bills.

After the elections that were held in April 2023, the affairs of the society were taken over by the elected union. But only a few months later, another administrator turned up with police force and gate-crashed into the society office, expelling all the elected office-bearers.

The electricity bills continued to pile up, and there was not a single step taken to address the acute problems, such as water supply, illegal electricity connections and security. Besides, all footpaths and adjoining areas were sold off against paltry sums allegedly in collusion with the land mafia. Today, illegal shops have been constructed, and one of which sells gas cylinders without any safeguards. It is a tragedy waiting to happen.

The residents wonder why the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA), which is always actively demolishing illegal structures across the city, has turned a blind eye to blatant encroachments on such a massive scale that are being carried on for the last many years now. It is time the provincial government restrained its elite bureaucracy from interfering in the affairs of city’s housing societies.

Name withheld on request
Karachi

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2024