KARACHI: 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.

Court orders KWSB to remove unauthorised and illegal occupants from its 344 properties within a month

The bench directed him to submit a progress report on Jan 14.

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.

The deputy controller of civil defence, Shahid Mansoor, submitted that in fact the fire safety issues related to civil defence and thus some amendments must be made in the regulations so that before approval of any building plan, a provision may be introduced for the no-objection certificate.

At this, the SBCA’s focal person also submitted that there must be some amendments in the regulations for the purpose of granting an NOC and the DG would hold a meeting with the focal person of civil defence.

The bench directed the SBCA chief to convene the meeting and also invite the chief fire officer for his input and file a progress report on the next hearing.

Petitioner Nadeem Sheikh also requested for some time to examine all the compliance reports.

KWSB told to dislodge unauthorised occupants

Another SHC bench on Wednesday directed the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) to remove unauthorised and illegal occupants from its 344 properties within 30 days.

The bench headed by Justice Nadeem Akhtar ordered the managing director and director-administration of the KWSB to file a compliance report by Jan 13.

It also asked the chief secretary, home secretary, the inspector general of police and others to ensure compliance of its order.

Earlier, a KWSB official informed the bench that 182 properties were in the possession of its retired or serving employees who were not entitled while 162 properties were encroached upon by “outsiders or illegal occupants”.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2020