KARACHI, April 28: Ali Imran studies in Karachi University’s mass communication department and has to rely on his classmates to carry him up the five or six stairs to the department. Ali can neither take classes on any of the upper floors where many departments are located or use washrooms when he is at the university.

“Though it is extremely difficult to move about but my classmates are very helpful,” he said while talking to Dawn. “To my knowledge I am the only student with physical disability in the university. People with same kind of problems as me don’t venture out of their homes because they are scared of asking for help but people aren’t as bad.”

Even though under government regulations every commercial or office building should have basic accessibility features to obtain a completion certificate, but most of the buildings violate these regulations.

Ironically, Karachi University which reserved two per cent seats for people with disabilities does not wheelchair ramps anywhere except on the campus at the entrance of its special education department.

Similarly the other big government university, Federal Urdu University of Arts Sciences and Technology is also not wheelchair friendly. The NED University, however, does have ramps but its bathrooms are not accessible for handicapped people.

The Supreme Court and high court buildings in Karachi do have ramps but the city court building does not. Many litigants who are old, disabled or sick cannot go up to the building or to the courtrooms on the upper floors. Talking to Dawn the Karachi Bar Council president Naeem Qureshi said that the court management had ensured the presence of wheelchairs for the litigants unable to walk. “If any litigant cannot go up to the courtroom then the court appoints a commissioner for them who takes down their statement or carries out further court proceedings. When asked why a ramp which only cost a few thousand rupees wasn’t built he said that since the city courts building had been declared as a heritage site they couldn’t make changes to it.

Wheelchair friendly places in Karachi — excluding hospitals — include MCB towers, Faysal Bank main branch, DHA Golf Club, Jinnah International Airport and Dolmen Mall Clifton, College of Business Administration, Institute of Business Administration main campus and The CAS School, Park Towers, The Forum, DHA Creek Club and the Jinnah International Airport with a few multinational offices.

However, a number of private schools, universities and restaurants are also wheelchair friendly. They include the College of Business and Administration, Institute of Business Administration and the CAS School. Others such as Iqra University, Syed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology and Ziauddin University also have wheelchair ramps.

To do or not to do The laws of Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA), Karachi Building & Town Planning Regulations (KBTPR) 2002 clearly stipulate that a building must have minimum two per cent conveniently-located disabled parking spaces (Reg. 24-2.6), a disabled toilet (Reg. 9-13.2), and a wheel-chair ramp at ground floor (Reg. 9-13.1), said Nadeem Khan, SBCA deputy director. “The ramp should have a height-to-length ratio of 1:12, which means that if the ground floor is one foot above grade level, then the ramp needs to be 12 feet long and at least four feet wide,” he said. “The regulations also stipulate that bathrooms must also be accessible for people with disabilities.”

He admitted though ramps and parking spaces are included in the maps of buildings approved by the SBCA, bathrooms seldom are. When asked if there are clear regulations then why do most buildings do not even have ramps, SBCA deputy director said that the building authority only takes action if it is intimated.

He said that licensed architects are bound to report to the SBCA at every step. “We don’t have enough staff to keep chasing after buildings and inspect them at every step,” he said.

Meanwhile, Engineer Roland deSouza of Shehri, an environmental advocacy group tackling violations of building codes in the city, said that internationally it was recommended that the ramps have a height-to-length ratio of 1:20. But the SBCA in a bid to reduce wasted space must have reduced it to 1:12.

Responding to the statement of SBCA deputy director that the SBCA only took action when intimated and did not chase after buildings for inspection, Mr deSouza said it was ‘laughable’ and ‘based on corruption’.

”Does the SBCA mean to say that they are only responsible to approve plans and not to ensure that they are implemented?” he asked. “In that case, not only are disabled regulations not being implemented, but all buildings constructed in Karachi (and the rest of Sindh) are being built in violation of safety provisions, structural, fire and other regulations without the knowledge of the SBCA.”

He said that there weren’t many wheelchair users out in the public because one has to be able manage and afford their own vehicle since they couldn’t use public transport at all.

“In a city which is hardly friendly for able-bodied people fear for their lives when they step out of their house, how do you expect to find people on wheelchairs especially so when there are no facilities for them. They can’t travel on public transport and most of them cannot afford their own cars,” he said. “Another issue is space constraint. There is not enough space for building ramps and special parking places in many buildings.”

Work done The president of Pakistan signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2011. Subsequently, the special education was given the status of a separate department.

The then provincial minister for special education Imtiaz Shaikh had announced that disability cards would be issued to such people in the province followed in other cities of Sindh. In its first phase, about 300 people with physical disabilities were issued special identity cards at a ceremony held at the Aga Khan hospital premises in march 2012. Afterwards, more than 1,000 cards were issued in collaboration with the NOWPDP and National Database Registration Authority Larkana, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Shikarpur and Shaheed Benazirabad districts.

In April 2012, a sub committee was formed by the department in collaboration with the commissioner of Karachi division and Network of Organisations for People With Disabilities, Pakistan (NOWPDP).

Its mandate was to identify the short-term measures to be undertaken to make Karachi a disability-friendly city and to identify buildings or public places and provide specific recommendations to ensure implementation of accessibility codes. The members of the committee include Karachi commissioner, the Sindh Building Control Authority, Directorate of Military Land & Cantonment, Association of Builders and Developers, SHEHRI, Institute of Architects Pakistan, special education department of Karachi University and Karachi Chambers of Commerce and Industries.

In December 2012, the Institute of Architects inspected the Cantt Railway Station, office of the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi (BIEK), Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (IVSAA) and head office of the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC). In their First Accessibility Inspection Report, it was said that though all four places did have ramps but had a few other accessibility issues, most important of whom was inaccessible bathrooms.