**Zn Turkey, the earthquake score now stands at some 50,000 dead and 500,000 homeless. The building control authorities of the Turkish cities, like ours, are corrupt to the core, and have their fair share of unscrupulous crooked builders and developers.

IF Nawaz Sharif feels that he can Survive and do wrong for ever by amending the Constitution, changing the laws, subverting the judiciary, oppressing and taxing the people at will, and by misgoverning with deliberation, he is surely mistaken.

As far as Karachi is concerned. the recent strike was sustained by the people. The lame-duck crooked opposition leaders, who grab at any available opportunity to make a nuisance of themselves, did their utmost to use it to their advantage. It was an effective strike of stomachs belonging to various denominations, some deserving some not. When stomachs rebel against authority they do so irrespective of the consequences that may follow.

Thanks to Nawaz Sharif, the economy of Karachi effectively stopped generating as of noon on Friday the 3rd and not gained momentum until noon on Tuesday the 7th. after the armed forces had celebrated their victories over the years from 1965 onwards, the year during which Ayub Khan declared September 6 as 'Defence Day,’ a public holiday, to commemorate his 'great victory.'

Now to the subject matter of this column, an extension of what was written last week — dangerous buildings.

In Turkey, the earthquake scorq now stands at some 50.000 dead and 500.000 homeless. The building control authorities of the Turkish cities, like ours, are corrupt to the core, and have their fair share of unscrupulous crooked builders and developers. Ishak Alaton. a 70-year-oId Turkish businessman, philanthropist, and commentator on Turkish norms and practices, has this to say about the recent catastrophe:

"Our company, Alarko, has constructed hundreds of houses and factories in that particular area. I am proud to say that in these constructions that were built in the last four decades, not one single crack occurred. The simple reason is that we. like ajl serious contractors and builders in that area, applied the prevailing Turkish codes of construction, which allow for an earthquake that would be 9.2 on the Richter scale. The great loss of life is the result of unscrupulous small developers and builders setting up apartments in loose riverbeds and land reclaimed from the sea without laying the

necessary foundations. Unfortunately. no technical control by the municipalities was applied. due to the collusion between unscrupulops builders and local municipal bureaucracies." (Newsweek. September 6)

The people of Karachi may not remember how. to save its own skin in its own particular convoluted way. the Karachi Building Control -Authority (KBCA), under pressure from concerned citizens (mainly the NGO SHEHR1 which has the Sood fortune of being guided by ne public- spirited volunteer Engineer Roland de Souza), published a public warning in Dawn on January 10 1997.

The warning listed 262 buildings. The text read: 'The following buildings which were constructed against the ap-Kroved building plans have een sealed by the KBCA and therefore the general public is informed not to enter into any transactions with the builders."

It informed the people yet again that in terms of the Sindh Building Control Ordinance 1979 it is mandatory that people occupy premises only after the builders have been given completion and occupancy certificates by the KBCA.

Again, under pressure and to cover themselves, another warning was published by the KBCA on September I, 1998, listing 26 high-rises of the 262 buildings, all 26 on the Sharea Faisal: Jason Trade Towers. Al-Kamran Centre. Fortune Centre. Progressive Square. Business Avenue. Shaheen Towers. Amber Towers (Block 6). Amber Castle. Shaheen View. Doctors Plaza. Amber Pride. Marine Faisal, Hannan Centre. Tax Free Plaza. Anum Classic, Kawish Crown, Metropolitan Bank. Faisal Towers, Fayyaz Plaza. Amber Towers (SMCHS), Mehdi Towers. Falaknaz Towers. three unnamed high-rises standing on 15-A. 20-A and 29-A Block 6. and one unnamed high-rise on 47 Danil Aman.

This time the warning was more specific. People were told that these buildings "are being constructed in contravention of the approved building plans .. . additionally the unauthorised construction is potentially dangerous as (buildings! are being built without an approved plan, (they! have not been properly supervised by a KBCA licensed architect/engineer. They are being constructed in violation of the earthquake resistance design."

Through collusion between

the KBCA building controllers, their lawyers, the builders and their lawyers, even after publication of this notice most of these dangerously constructed buildings have been completed and a number of them are occupied.

Take the case of Fortune Towers, standing incomplete on the left of Sharea Falsi going towards the airport. This construction, from point one. was challenged by the NGO SHEHRI. so far unsuccessfully.

On August 8. 1997. the KBCA, duly greased, approved a plan, which it should not have done, for the construction of ground plus twelve commercial floors on a residential plot not legally converted. On December 18 1997, the KBCA, approved a revised building plan allowing ground plus sixteen floors.

This incomplete structure should cover a built-up area, illegally allowed by the KBCA, of 113,068 square feet. But what stands today covers a built-up area of 364,826 square feet, over three times the area originally approved. Needless to say. the structure does not meet with earthquake resistance standards.

Next, to Al-Karam Centre on the right of Sharea Faisal going towards the airport, opposite the Nursery market. The approved plan allowed for ground plus eight floors.

The builders built ground plus twelve, under cover of stay orders of sorts obtained from courts. Subsequently the High Court vacated the stay orders leaving KBCA free to act.

It started demolition proceedings in accordance with the law and had demolished or rendered uninhabitable the top two floors when the Secretary of Housing and Town Planning (HTP), Faisal Saud, instructed the Director-General of the KDA and the Commissioner of Karachi to stop the demolition work. At noon on May 3. 1999, .itwas stopped.

On May 5, 1999, I wrote to Governor Haider: "On May 4. Faisal Saud was asked at the meeting of the KDA Governing Body why he had interferea with the due process of law. He advised that he had done so on your instructions conveyed to him on the telephone by your Military Secretary. It seems that you have been misinformed and thus have ordered as you did. It is inconceivable that you could have stalled the due process of law, allowing

time to the builders to have the building occupied by rented crowds.

Some days later I met the governor but he did not disclose who or what had got under his skin. The order had been issu'td by him whilst he was in Islamabad.

The illegally approved pirn of this building permitted the building of 21,381 square feet, The builder built 86.130 square feet, over four times as much

.Now. the builders and their organisation, the Association of Builders and Developers (ABAD), feel that whatever the builders built illegally and not in accordance with the law of the land, and every other criminal act. should be regularised by the government.

They recently wrote to the editor of Dawn, copying me; "The negative attitude of SHEHRI towards regularisation of irregular illegal buildings has made the issue more (complicated]. In every major city of Pakistan, regularisation is considered a compoundable offence, whereas because of bias and blackmailing attitude of this NGO neither KBCA entertains plans for comple-tion/regularisation nor Government has come up with any final answer to this apathy."

The committees constituted and notified to oversee the operation of the KBCA and the KDA Governing Body, on both of which sit responsible representatives of the people, arc to some extent effective. That is proven by the fact that Secretary. HTP. Faisal Saud, wants both disbanded and reconstituted with purchasable individuals and bodies.

The secretary Is frustrated, and in his frustration, from January 1 of this year, he has transferred and reposted 43 officers angling to be posted to positions of their liking. Of the 43. by law the secretary was empowered to transfer only three, the KDA Governing Body having the authority to transfer the other 40. But then, it is said that transferring and reposting is a lucrative business.

To make things worse. Ghous All Shah, in his perfect wisdom, has assigned the portfolio of Housing and Town Planning to Dost Mohammed Faizi. People well know the propensities of Ghous and of Faizi, and they will resist.

To live in a dwelling which meets with laid-down standards is their legitimate due.