The report of the Karachi Building Control Authority (KBCA) on the fire-devastated building of the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (PNSC) will have no effect, official sources told Business Recorder on Saturday.
There are several impediments, one of which being that the KBCA has no authority to get its recommendations implemented, as the PNSC building is the property of the federal government, they added.
It may be recalled that a devastating blaze had erupted on the fourth floor of the 16-storey PNSC building and left seven floors in a complete shambles on August 19, 2007. Sources in the KBCA on condition of anonymity said the Authority, which is a closed institution in terms of information as its officials always shy away from the media persons, had declared almost seven floors (from 10th to 16th) of the building as dangerous after February 18, 2007 inferno.
"The post-February 18 report produced no results as the federal government was involved in the matter which put the KBCA recommendations on the backburner", they lamented.
The KBCA was still firm on its stance that the PNSC building's floors from 10th to 16th were dangerous as "no improvement has been made in the structure of these floors", sources said. When asked whether the KBCA recommendations were due in the next few days, sources replied the issuance of report was awaiting the return of a senior official, who was on his vacations.
It may be mentioned here that Town Building Control Officer, Architect Nisar Ahmed is out of country nowadays, the best offering-time for which is believed to be on the eve of Ramazan. When asked, a KBCA official said that Nisar Ahmed would return to the country by September 18, 2007.
On a question that whether the most awaited KBCA report was likely to recommend demolition of the building, sources said: "No, though the recent fire had damaged some columns of the building but it is okay and needs to be repaired."
The KBCA and the Mushtaq and Bilal Associates, designer of the building, had conducted inspection of the fire-hit premises on the same day and both had declared floors from 4 to 10 repairable, sources added. Sources said false-ceilings in different offices of the private firms located on the affected floors of the building had combustible materials, which ignited the fire and made it more devastating.
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