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Focus shifts to enforcement, preparedness, and reform pathways

By Mukhtar Alam

KARACHI: Having outlined where fire safety frameworks repeatedly falter, stakeholders are now focusing on enforcement discipline, preparedness planning, and pathways for systemic reform. The consensus emerging from interviews suggests that technical solutions exist, but their impact hinges on regulatory continuity, institutional coordination, and governance integrity.

Practical measures

Zahid Farooq, Joint Director, Urban Resource Centre (URC), places the city’s fire safety crisis within the broader context of resource constraints and governance neglect, noting that fire safety is neither prioritised nor consistently discussed within city administration.

He echoes the view that compensation cannot replace accountability, describing it as a temporary relief measure that may win public sympathy but does not absolve authorities of responsibility.

Zahid Farooq

Farooq advocates practical, citizen-oriented mechanisms, including the establishment of a 24/7 toll-free helpline for reporting unsafe conditions, with guaranteed confidentiality to protect whistle-blowers. He emphasises the role of social sector organisations in running sustained public awareness campaigns, supported by local governments, elected representatives, and both provincial and city administrations.

He stresses the importance of information transparency and coordination, calling for building layouts, exit routes, and documentation to be shared with regulatory authorities and prominently displayed within buildings. Regular coordination between city, town, and union council officials, along with building owners and managers, is essential, he says.

On emergency preparedness, Farooq highlights serious gaps in firefighting capacity, questioning whether existing systems are equipped to handle high-rise buildings. He urges an assessment of how many floors equipment can realistically serve, how many tall buildings exist, and how fires can be controlled in structures beyond existing limits.

Farooq concludes that in an underdeveloped governance context, public pressure remains the most effective driver of reform. Drawing parallels with successful civic struggles — including rehabilitation after forced evictions and farmers’ rights movements — he argues that sustained citizen mobilisation, supported by civil society and media, can compel authorities to act where institutions otherwise fail.

Industry perspective

Mohammed Hassan Bakshi, Chairman of the Association of Builders and Developers of Pakistan (ABAD), said that most high-rise buildings constructed over the past 10 to 15 years were largely compliant with prevailing fire safety requirements, adding that the issue lay less with the absence of regulations and more with their uneven enforcement.

He maintained that existing fire safety codes were technically adequate, but stressed the need for Pakistan to develop its own standards aligned with local economic realities rather than relying entirely on British or American models. “Codes designed for countries with per capita incomes of over $40,000 cannot be applied wholesale in a country where per capita income is around $1,800,” he said, advocating simplified and context-specific regulations.

Bakshi acknowledged that safety lapses could occur at multiple stages — during design approval, construction, post-completion modifications by owners, or alterations by tenants — though the degree of responsibility varied in each case. He identified selective enforcement of rules, often enabled by collusion between regulators and stakeholders, as a major contributor to safety failures.

On costs, he said fire safety compliance depended on the materials used, noting that European systems were significantly more expensive than Chinese alternatives, while currency depreciation had further increased overall costs.

Mohammed Hassan Bakshi

Clarifying the builders’ role, Bakshi said that under the Sindh Condominium Act, 2014, a developer’s responsibility has been typically extended up to two years after completion. Once completion and occupancy certificates were issued, buildings were to be handed over to SBCA-registered maintenance companies — a practice, he said, was standard internationally to ensure long-term safety and habitability.

He said ABAD supported mandatory periodic fire safety audits for commercial buildings, provided such mechanisms did not create new avenues for corruption or harassment. While expressing concern over inspections driven by individuals or groups with alleged mala fide intentions, he said ABAD remained open to scrutiny by authorised government regulators or government-nominated private entities.

Bakshi reiterated that ABAD had no regulatory powers and currently served only in an advisory capacity, but said the association was willing to assume a greater role if powers were formally delegated through legislation. He also called for the regulatory system to be privatised and digitalised, arguing that transparent processes and merit-based appointments in regulatory bodies were essential for across-the-board compliance.

“ABAD is committed to playing a positive role in making buildings safer and more livable,” he said.

Urban lens

Rafiul Haq, a consultant ecologist, said Karachi’s recurring fire disasters were less a consequence of missing regulations and more the result of systemic neglect marked by weak enforcement, outdated infrastructure, and an enduring lack of political will.

He identified a convergence of failures in commercial buildings — flawed designs with inadequate exits and fire-resistant materials, insufficient retrofitting of older structures, and chronic enforcement lapses caused by compromised regulatory oversight. “Fire safety has never been treated as a continuous obligation,” he said, stressing that compliance often ends once a building becomes operational.

Haq said estimates suggest that 70 to 80 per cent of Karachi’s buildings lack adequate fire safety systems, given the city’s aging building stock, limited inspection capacity, and the absence of large-scale retrofitting initiatives. While exact figures varied, he said the magnitude of risk was undeniable and demanded urgent corrective action.

Although existing building and fire safety codes were broadly aligned with international standards on paper, they were outdated in practice and poorly adapted to Karachi’s evolving urban realities, he said. Vague provisions, regulatory loopholes, and the lack of specific safeguards for high-rise and mixed-use buildings had weakened their effectiveness, he added emphasising the need for regularly updated codes, strict penalties for non-compliance, and incentives — or mandates — to retrofit older buildings.

Rafiul Haq

According to Haq, the most serious failures use to occur after construction, particularly during post-completion inspections and ongoing compliance. He said inspections were often irregular or compromised, allowing unsafe buildings to remain occupied, while building owners faced little pressure to maintain or upgrade fire safety systems once approvals were secured.

Drawing on global examples, Haq said cities that had successfully reduced fire-related fatalities relied on hybrid institutional models combining strong municipal enforcement with independent oversight. “Local authorities provide reach and immediacy, while independent bodies ensure transparency, expertise, and accountability,” he said, adding that neither model worked effectively in isolation.

He said a unified fire safety task force or supra-authority could be viable in Karachi, but only if it avoided replicating existing governance failures. Such a body, he argued, would require clear legal authority, defined responsibilities, adequate resources, and insulation from political interference. Without these safeguards, it risked becoming another symbolic institution.

To function effectively, Haq said such a body would need extraordinary powers, including authority to seal unsafe buildings, initiate prosecutions, operate with an independent budget, and regularly update fire safety standards. “Without enforcement teeth, reform becomes performative,” he remarked.

While acknowledging the potential of technology, Haq cautioned against viewing digital tools as a cure-all. GIS mapping, digital audits, and public dashboards could improve transparency and reduce opportunities for corruption, he said, but only if backed by genuine political commitment. “Technology can expose non-compliance, but it cannot replace political will,” he added.

Asked what single reform could prevent another Gul Plaza-type tragedy, Haq said mandatory retrofitting of high-risk, older buildings — enforced through independent inspections and strict accountability — would have the greatest impact. “If implemented honestly, it would directly address the structural and governance failures that turn routine fires into mass-casualty disasters.”

(Originally published by Social Track, Karachi)