Over four-and-a-half years after the collapse of a multi-storey building in Gulbahar that left 27 people dead, a sessions court on Monday convicted five building owners of manslaughter and ordered them to pay over Rs8 million Diyat to the family of each of the victims.
Sixteen persons had also sustained injuries when the six-storey building had collapsed in Gulbahar in March 2020. Additional Sessions Judge (Central) Ghulam Mustafa Leghari found Muhammad Javed, his wife Dr Jamal Fatima and their sons Jahanzaib, Junaid and Jibran guilty of committing offence punishable under the Section 322 (qatl bis-sabab) of the Pakistan Penal Code and ordered them to pay Rs8,103,955 diyat to the legal heirs of each of the deceased persons and Rs50,000 to each of the 16 people who were injured in the incident.
“The above-named convicted accused persons are present on bail, they are taken into custody and remanded to jail till payment of Diyat and compensation amount jointly according to their equal share to the family/legal heirs of deceased and injured persons,” he ruled.
However, the judge acquitted SBCA officials Amir Kamal Jafri, Muhammad Raqeeb Ali, Sarfaraz Jamali, Maqsood Qureshi, Abid Hussain Bhutto, Irfan Ali, Muhammad Imran Shaikh and Latafat – and Javed’s employee Muhammad Younus by giving them the benefit of the doubt.
“It seems that Jamal Fatima, wife of accused Javed, is real owner of the property No.95/1, 400 quarters,” he noted, adding that it came on record during the testimonies of prosecution witnesses that on the day of the incident, Jibran and Jahanzaib were supervising sewerage work near the main pillar of the building being carried out by plumber Ghulam Mustafa who also died in the incident.
“It has also come on record that PWs [prosecution witnesses] Riaz Ahmed, Khalil Ahmed and Prince Khurram had forbidden the accused Jibran and Jahanzaib that they should not dig adjacent pillar of the building because the building had tilted but they refused,” he said.
The judge noted that witness Asif Iqbal, who was residing in the building No.95/2, had stated that he and other neighbours told Javed and his son Jibran that their building had titled but they did not take any notice.
According to state prosecutor Hina Naz Shams, the residential building situated on plot No.95/1, Gulbahar No 2, Rizvia Society, collapsed on March 5, 2020, bringing down two other buildings. As a result, 27 people, including women and children, lost their lives.
The building in question with mezzanine plus five floors was owned by Javed’s wife who ran a clinic on the ground floor and lived along with her husband on the mezzanine floor. Their son Jibran lived with his family in a penthouse on the sixth floor.
During the trial, the IO testified that he had recorded statements of witnesses who disclosed that the building had tilted due to repair work on the ground floor. “From further statement of mohalla persons it came on record that the accused persons Javed and his sons and wife were digging the pillars of 95/1 [building] due to which the building which had already tilted collapsed as accused Javed and his family were illegally constructing the building due to greed,” he said.
The police officer said that accused Latafat Mirza, an SBCA employee, had got constructed the third and fourth floor after taking bribe and using his connections.
He said Javed had disclosed that the building initially had only a ground floor when it was gifted to his wife in 1997. He admitted to demolishing the original structure and reconstructing it to have a ground floor plus one floor. “For construction of each floor, he gave money to Imran who is employee of SBCA,” the IO said. “He further disclosed that after 2 years, he completed third floor but SBCA demolished the same.
Thereafter one person of SBCA to whom he did not know by name came to him and said that he would get construct the third floor after getting money. In the meanwhile, he gave Rs150,000 to Imran Sheikh and got constructed third floor and thereafter he got constructed fourth to 6th floors after setting with Imran Sheikh and after 6 to 7 months, he got constructed pent house and shifted his son and daughter-in-law [there].”
In their statement recorded under the Section 342 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), the accused denied allegations of the prosecution and claimed to be innocent.
A case was registered under the Sections 322 (manslaughter), 119 (public servant concealing design to commit offence which it is his duty to prevent), 337-H (punishment for hurt by rash or negligent act), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees), 109 (abetment) and 34 (common intention) the Pakistan Penal Code at the Rizvia Society police station.