KARACHI: Ten people have been killed and several others injured as a three storey building collapsed in Gulbahar locality in Nazimabad on Thursday. Volunteers engaged in rescue efforts, fear many more to be stuck in the debris.
Meanwhile, the injured, aged between 16 years to 40 years, have been shifted to KMC administered Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. Karachi Mayor, Syed Wasim Akhter has declared emergency in the hospital ordering absolute presence of all staffers and doctors/surgeons. A spokesman of Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) has attributed the mishap to violation of building rules.
The rescue teams and Pakistan Army have so far recovered four persons including a woman and three boys from the rubble during their continued rescue operation. The rescue sources told that despite of facing difficulties in their rescue operation due to inaccessibility to the thick populated area, hectic efforts were underway to safely recover the other injured persons trapped under the debris of the building.
Meanwhile, Sindh Minister for Information, Local Government, Housing and Town Planning, Religious Affairs, Forest and Wildlife Syed Nasir Hussain Shah has said that strict action would be taken against those who was found to be involved in the tragic incident of a collapse of the residential building in Golimar.
Syed Nasir Hussain Shah said this while visiting the locality of Golimar where the five-storey residential building fell on Thursday. The Sindh Minister said that Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah had also taken immediate notice of the incident and sought a report from Commissioner Karachi and the concerned officers of the Sindh Building Control Authority. He said he would personally supervise the investigation of the incident.
The minister said that rescue operations were started immediately after the incident and all the injured had been shifted to the hospitals where they were receiving prompt medical treatment. He said that the Sindh government was monitoring the treatment of the injured by itself, and it had been ensured that they received best possible medical treatment. Syed Nasir Hussain Shah during his visit to the spot met with the people and assessed the damages caused by the collapsed of the building.
Talking to the media, the Minister promised a thorough probe into what he described as a regrettable incident and said that severe action would be taken against whosoever, be it officials of Sindh Building Control Authority or the Builder, was found responsible. Talking about the rescue operation, Sindh Minister for Information and Local Government said that all the concerned officials of the departments of Sindh Building Control Authority, Karachi Municipal Corporation, as well as officials of Provincial Disaster Management Authority reached the spot immediately and rescued the people. The rescue operation would be completed soon, he added.
Shah said he felt extremely sorry that the innocent lives could not be prevented, but he vowed that government would try to ensure that all those who were injured in the incident received proper treatment facilities, adding that it would also ensure that in future no such incident takes place anywhere. The minister said that Sindh government was very serious that no illegal construction could be raised in Karachi. He mentioned that the officers of the Sindh Building Control Authority who had been removed from their service recently also linked to the same approach of the government.
