A large number of businesses linked with the construction industry will be affected by the Sindh Building Control Authority’s (SBCA) immediate ban on the construction of high-rise buildings in the metropolis, according to Association of Builders and Developers of Pakistan (Abad) Senior Vice-Chairperson Hassan Bakshi.
Acting on orders passed by the Supreme Court (SC), SBCA Director-General Agha Maqsood Abbas imposed forthwith ‘a complete ban on the construction of multistoried and high-rise buildings beyond ground plus two floors in Karachi’.
According to a statement, the ban was imposed after a letter was received from the local government department in compliance with the SC’s orders. The apex court directed the imposition of a complete ban on the construction of multistorey and high-rise buildings till the water shortage in the city is overcome and new resources of potable water are put in place.
The incumbent managing director of the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB), Hashim Raza Zaidi, wrote on March 23 a letter to the local government secretary asking for the imposition of a complete ban in compliance with the SC’s orders on such constructions till the problem of water shortage in the city is overcome.
Earlier, while talking to media, KWSB’s former managing director, Misbahuddin Farid, gave the example of Bath Island, which was designed for merely 2,000 government houses and hence had a small system for water and sanitation.
“Now it [Bath Island] is teeming with multistorey buildings, none of which sought a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the water board,” he had pointed out. KWSB did not receive any betterment charges for these apartments so it is neither able to provide water to this area nor maintain its sewerage system properly, he said.
Earlier, only single families used to reside in a 240-square-yard house, but that space now accommodates several apartments spread across multiple floors. At least 10 families now occupy the same space, Farid had complained.
There is also an ongoing war among KWSB, SBCA and the cantonment boards, according to a senior KWSB official, requesting anonymity. “Unfortunately, the minister for both KWSB and SBCA is the same,” the official said.
Since 2012, the water board has not received any betterment charges from SBCA, the official complained. However, the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation council recently passed a resolution which clearly states that under the Change of Land Use and Master Planning By-Laws, 2003 the KWSB must get 20% share of the approval of change of land fees.
SBCA’s Abbas was not available for comments despite repeated attempts to contact him.
Meanwhile, KWSB’s Zaidi told media he had written letters to all the cantonment boards asking them to stop issuing NOCs for high-rise buildings in light of SC’s decision but he did not hear back from them.
The SC, he said, has already made it mandatory for all the high-rise building projects in the city to obtain an NOC from KWSB, which they are not issuing as of now.
“In my knowledge, no cantonment board has issued any notification imposing a ban on high-rises,” he said, adding that until the water condition gets better in the city, the ban is a good idea.
He seemed positive that the K-IV project would be functional from July, 2018, and the major water woes of the city would be resolved.
No cantonment board official was available for comments.
Such kinds of bans may not work in a city like Karachi, according to urban planner Farhan Anwar. “More thought needs to be given on the issue,” Anwar said, pointing out that the problems are arising due to densification of high-rise buildings.
Vertical growth of buildings, he said, is taking place all over the world but there needs to be proper planning for it. “The government is moving from one extreme to another. One has to find a middle way,” he said.
Meanwhile, Abad’s Bakshi said that the case wasn’t presented properly by the Sindh government in SC and neither were they heard properly. He believed the industry would collapse and millions of labourers would be jobless if the ban is imposed.
Before the groundbreaking of any multistorey building on a 1,000 yard plot, he said that they pay Rs46 million to the Sindh government.
“Now the distribution of that tax is the government’s duty, not the builder’s,” he said, adding that in the last 10 to 12 years around Rs12 billion has been collected by the Sindh government and now they should give the due shares of all the departments.
Construction in the port city is need-based, he said, adding that if the ban continues, some in the industry as well as in the Sindh government would instead continue their business on kickbacks.
Since it is a matter of their bread and butter, they would go to the SC and also see the chief minister, Anwar said.
