Residents helplessly wait to return home after Karachi’s Gulistan-e-Jauhar fire

It has been five days since a deadly fire broke out at Karachi’s Bin Hashim Pharmacy and Super Market in Block 14, Gulistan-e-Jauhar, but the concerned authorities have yet to help the affected families.

Darul Salam Prime – a five-storey housing project with 39 luxury apartments built over the Bin Hashim Super Market – was badly hit and damaged during the 48-hour-long fire incident in the basement of the store. The blaze was reported at 9:30am on the morning of May 7.

It turned into a nightmare for the residents of Darul Salam Prime. They are without electricity, gas and water for the last five days during Ramzan time.

The residents were left with no choice but to leave their homes and make temporary living arrangements with relatives.

The marks and cracks left on the building by the fumes are quite visible.

Countless residents, mainly men, can be seen sitting outside the housing project all day with hopes of some sort of help from the government.

Muhammad Siraj, the president of the apartment’s union, while sitting on a charpai outside the site, said that the district administration has assured them of measures for their speedy relief.

Muhammad Arsalan, the father of Rija Muneeb – a girl who was active on social media to highlight the plights of the residents of Darul Salam Prime after the fire incident –  said the residents were all without a roof over their head for the last five days as the infrastructure of the building had been destroyed completely.

“Our families, including women and children, have been shifted to the houses of relatives, but we are here and are waiting for the concerned authorities to start some relief work,” Arsalan said.

He said their life has changed. “We are here outside our houses, facing difficulties in fasting. We go to the ‘pathan’ hotel for Sehri and Iftari,” he shared.

Arsalan demanded the authorities concerned ensure completion of maintenance work before Eid as he and his family wanted to celebrate it in their home.

Meanwhile, neither is the Sindh Building Control Authority nor the Cantonment Board Faisal ready to claim jurisdiction of the affected site.

An executive officer of the CBF, Muhammad Aamir Maksud, told SAMAA Digital that the Bin Hashim Super Market is not within the jurisdiction of CBF. He said the cantonment limits end before it.

“We have a proper layout plan approved by the Pakistan’s Survey Department, which shows that the affected site is not in the jurisdiction of the cantonment board and the reason the teams are not at the site,” Maksud said.

SBCA Gulistan-e-Jauhar Town Deputy Director Shahid Shaikh dubbed that the approved building plan of the plaza and super market is not with SBCA, which means, according to him, that the building plan was approved by CBF. He said that the building was constructed some 15 years back.

“The SBCA has already submitted a layout plan of Gulistan-e-Jauhar Town before the East deputy commissioner, in which the said area is not in control of the authority,” Shaikh said.

He said an SBCA team visited the site on the request of the East DC and observed that the beam and pillars of the building are fine. Although, repair and maintenance work is still due at the site.

East DC Ahmed Ali Siddiqui informed SAMAA Digital that an undertaking has been taken from the builder of the project and the owner of the super market. They have both agreed to bear the expense of the renovation and maintenance of the residential projects.

“On Monday, a team of the SBCA will pay a detailed visit to the affected site and compile a report of the damages done to the residential project,” Siddiqui said, adding that a third party technical expert team would also visit the site before starting maintenance and repair work of the building.

KMC chief fire officer Tehseen Ahmed Siddiqui said the cause of the fire has yet to be ascertained as the final report is in process.

He said the go down of the super market where the fire took place was located in the basement and covered completely from all directions, which created impediments in extinguishing the fire.

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Article source: https://www.samaa.tv/news/2019/05/residents-helplessly-wait-to-return-home-after-karachis-gulistan-e-jauhar-fire/