• Court orders builder, his wife and three sons to pay Rs8.1m diyat to legal heirs of each of 27 victims who perished in 2020 tragedy
• Sends them to prison over non-payment of blood money
• Acquits eight SBCA officials after prosecution failed to prove charges

KARACHI: A sessions court on Monday convicted the owner of a building that collapsed in the Gulbahar area in 2020 and four of his family members of manslaughter and sent them to prison after they failed to pay diyat (blood money).

In March 2020, a seven-storey building, which was constructed on a 74-square-yard plot in Gulbahar, had collapsed, killing 27 people, including women and children.

The court also acquitted eight officials of the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) as the prosecution failed to prove charges against them.

Additional District and Sessions Judge (Central) Ghulam Mustafa Laghari found building owner Muhammad Javed, his wife Jamal Fatima and their sons — Jahanzaib, Junaid, and Jibran — guilty of the offence under Section 322 (punishment for Qatl-bis-sabab) and ordered the convicts to pay diyat of Rs8,103,955 each to the legal heirs of the 27 deceased victims.

The court also directed the convicts to pay Rs50,000 as compensation to each of the 16 injured survivors.

“The convicted persons are present on bail, they are taken into custody and remanded to jail until payment of Diyat and compensation amount jointly according to their equal share to the family/legal heirs of deceased and injured persons,” the court ruled.

The judge acquitted the eight SBCA employees — Amir Kamal Jafri, Muhammad Imran Shaikh, Latafat, Muhammad Raqeeb Ali, Sarfaraz Jamali, Maqsood Qureshi, Abid Hussain Bhutto and Irfan Ali — by extending them the benefit of the doubt.

According to state prosecutor Hina Naz Shams and the counsel for the complainant, convict Javed had first constructed only the ground floor, but he later built more floors by greasing the palms of the officials of the SBCA.

They said that Javed raised six floors after allegedly making a “deal” with accused Imran Sheikh and later constructed a penthouse on the seventh floor and moved his son and daughter-in-law there.

In March 2020, the illegally constructed building had fallen on two adjacent structures, bringing them to the ground as well. As many as 27 people were killed in the incident. It was reported that the builder/owner had carried out major excavation work at the foundation and tried to erect additional pillars to support the existing pillars in order to strengthen the building structure to prevent it from collapsing.

A case was registered under Sections 322 (punishment for Qatl-bis-sabab), 119 (public servant concealing design to commit offence which it is his duty to prevent), 337-H (punishment for hurt by rash or negligent act), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees), 109 (abetment) and 34 (common intention) the Pakistan Penal Code at the Rizvia Society police station.

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2024