KARACHI (HRNW): The Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) has submitted its response to the Judicial Commission investigating the Gul Plaza fire tragedy. The report reveals a significant gap in oversight, noting that the authority has not conducted a survey of the commercial building in over 23 years.
According to the SBCA’s response, the building’s initial approval was issued by the then Karachi Building Authority in 1979. A revised plan was approved in 1998 for a Ground-plus-Three (G+3) structure, which allowed for 1,043 shops. In 2003, under an amnesty scheme, an additional 1,102 shops were regularized, bringing the sanctioned total even higher.
Lack of Recent Records
The SBCA admitted to the commission that it currently holds no record of the actual number of shops operating within Gul Plaza at the time of the fire. The report stated that the last formal survey of the premises was conducted in 2003 during the regularization process.
The authority defended this lack of oversight by stating that it does not conduct “post-completion surveys” unless a specific complaint regarding unauthorized construction is received. Consequently, any internal modifications or additional commercial units added over the last two decades remained undocumented by the building regulator.
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