It is a routine matter to hear that an overhead bridge has collapsed on Lahore’s Ring Road, or, a bridge has caved in within days of construction in Karachi, or, a fire has erupted in a high rise building without any fire exits and mandatory fire fighting equipments. This has included one located in Lahore which housed the offices of the LDA, supposed to regulate and approve the safety of buildings constructed in Lahore. Even the offices of DHA Lahore and DHA Karachi have no fire exits.
In Karachi, the situation is even worse where over 300 people died in a factory without adequate fire exits. Almost the same crisis afflicts Building Control Authority in Karachi, the CDA in Islamabad, the CAA, OGRA, SECP and the Drug Regulatory Authority. When land and construction mafias decide who will head either the CDA or LDA, citizens will continue to suffer. If overhead bridges constructed by same sub contractor on Lahore’s Ring Road collapse again and again, it is clear that such a contractor enjoys political clout. A similar situation is there to be witnessed in Pakistan’s aviation and pharmaceutical industry, where the regulators themselves are corrupt.
