Three neighborhoods in Karachi are the biggest headache for the Sindh Building Control Authority officers because they have the most illegal construction: Liaquatabad, Gulberg and Nazimabad. But they are not hot favourites with the builder mafia because the real estate is expensive. The reason has nothing to do with the value of the land.
It is about family. “A couple who has two to three sons and all of them got married… they try to live in the same building,” explained one SBCA officer, who did not want to be named as he is not authorized to speak to the media. As the sons get married and form their own families, the parents add on additional floors because they do not want their children to live far away from them.
The only problem is that this kind of construction is illegal. There are limits on how high you can build on small plots and in these neighbourhoods the majority range from 60 square yards to 90sq yards.
How builders get away with it
The illegal construction can be punished but the long arm of the law proves short on reach here. Section 19-A of the Sindh Building Control Ordinance, 1979 stipulates how a person guilty of illegal construction should be brought before a City Court judge. After hearing the case, the judge can order the SBCA to determine the nature of the construction and whether the builder should be prosecuted. This process takes time, and while it is unfolding the builder gets pre-arrest bail from the lower courts, said an SBCA official.
One attempt was made to plug the loophole in the system by making a change to the 1979 law so that the SBCA could impose Section 144 on illegal construction and arrest the builder on the spot. The legal amendment was supposed to go to the Sindh Assembly for a vote to be passed into law.
Trouble with demolition
If the SBCA reaches the point where it can demolish an illegal construction, that procedure is even more lengthy. According to the SBCA Director Town Planning, if an illegal building is occupied, the SBCA cannot just demolish it. The law says the authority should first serve the residents ejectment notices and inform the police about the demolition. The police then have to make a list of residents along with their belongings. But while this entire process unfolds, the residents go to court and acquire a stay order to prevent the demolition.
Bribery and corruption
The 1979 law clearly says in Section 18 (G) that utilities (electricity, water) are not authorized to give a residential building new connections without an SBCA clearance or No-Objection Certificate. The SBCA gives the NoC clearance after a building’s completion plan is stamped. A completion plan is issued once an SBCA surveyor checks the site. Residential buildings are a maximum of ground plus 2 for plots up to 399 square yards. The completion plan can be issued once the surveyor sees that the ground plus 1 is built properly. But what happens in reality is that the builder gets new connections by greasing palms and bypasses the SBCA’s clearance process.
In Liaquatabad’s case, there are more illegal buildings than the SBCA has teams to demolish. In fact, the authority only had four teams for the entire city. They can be no match for organized nexus of powerful people through the system. “A chain of mafias, including MNAs and MPAs, are involved in the business of illegal construction in Liaquatabad, Gulberg and Nazimabad,” said SBCA Liaquatabad Director Malik Ejaz. They intervene when the SBCA tries to act.
According to Ejaz, for example, MPA Abbas Jafferi of the PTI elected from Liaquatabad in 2018 telephoned him during a demolition operation in Liaquatabad Town and asked the director to stop the operation. For his part, however, Jafferi denies the allegation. “I did not make any call to anyone asking to stop a demolition operation against illegal construction,” he said, adding that the SBCA itself was a mafia that worked in cahoots with the police. The SBCA officers and police demolish sites of builders who do not agree to give the bribes they demand, he said. The PTI MPA went on to say that MNAs and MPAs of his party may be involved in such practices, but he was not one of them. “I am fighting against such elements in my own party,” he added, but declined to give any further details or evidence to back his claim.
The nexus is not limited to people at the top, but goes all the way to the bottom. Former SBCA Liaquatabad Director Ali Mehdi Kazmi, who is now posted to New Karachi, told SAMAA Digital that the paan wallahs, butchers and tailors are involved in illegal construction in Liaquatabad. “Those people earn millions in a month from their occupation and invest this money in the illegal constructions,” he said.
SAMAA Digital found one man, Imtiaz, a tailor by profession, who explained how the illegal construction happens. He started in the builder business in 2015 by purchasing a single residential unit in Liaquatabad for Rs1,200,000 and sold it for Rs1,500,000 after a few months.
“After a year, I managed to gather Rs5,000,000 and started constructing residential units in Liaquatabad Nos 2 and 8,” he said. “You should have proper setting with small grade SBCA officials, including senior building inspectors and building inspectors of that particular area.”
A 90sq yard plot in Liaquatabad goes for Rs12 million. The construction of a five-floor building on that plot costs Rs11 million. This means a complete project like this costs you Rs23 million. It has two residential units on each floor, which means a total of 12 in the building. Construction takes six months and it sells for Rs35 million. “The project gives you a profit of around Rs12 million,” he said.
Imtiaz explained that the lower SBCA staff of the rank of building inspector and senior building inspector is involved in the dealings with the builders and they give a “cut” to the SBCA director concerned. “The higher ranking officers are transferred regularly, so the lower staff is the key for dealing with our matters, as they remain in the area for a long time and have a better understanding with us.”
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