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If given the choice between saving your life and saving your house, every person would undoubtedly choose the former. But without the sorcerous gift of hindsight, it is a decision that hinges on uprooting your life for something that might never happen. Currently, the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) has declared 589 Karachi buildings unsafe and ordered the evacuation of residents ahead of the monsoon season as an act of caution.
For residents, the choice is rarely so simple. Leaving means walking away from the only roof, and often the only asset, a family owns – all on the basis of a notice that offers no rent and no transit shelter. Karachi’s history shows an unfortunate pattern of people being asked to clear their homes without being given their due compensations. Yet successive building collapses in Lyari alone have killed dozens of people over the past several years, and almost all those buildings had already been flagged by authorities as dangerous but never cleared. This year’s list cannot be allowed to suffer a similar fate. Residents and urban planners alike have questioned whether all 589 buildings were actually inspected by a qualified engineer. Not only does SBCA reportedly lack the manpower for such a large-scale inspection, but it seems to be ridding itself of its responsibility by placing buildings that merely require repairs under the same at-risk umbrella.
What is seemingly a minor distinction matters most for people who cannot afford to be wrong. Most residents on this list belong to lower socio-economic classes and, with nowhere else to go, have no cushion for the government’s dawdling. SBCA needs to earn the trust it demands. First, it must verify every building and present the findings in a transparent manner. Then, offer alternatives before enforcing strict evacuation. Only then does choosing lives over a house stop being a gamble.
