Hope was alive till people trapped under collapsed Golimar buildings’ rubble talked on mobile phones

As Abdullah Ghori cannot remember the exact number of deaths in his extended family in the Golimar buildings collapse tragedy on Thursday morning, he counts their names on his fingers.

Ghori, who is a wholesaler of eggs, lost nine of his family members on Thursday at around 12pm, when a ground plus five-storey residential building, where another floor was being

constructed in Golimar, collapsed and brought down two other neighboring buildings.

The incident is reminiscent of horrific images of October 8, 2005 earthquake in northern areas of Pakistan in which residents trapped inside rubble kept calling their loved ones on mobile phones asking for a swift rescue operation. On Thursday, Ghori received numerous phone calls from his relatives who were gasping for air while trapped inside the rubble.

Until 4:30pm on Thursday, he was in contact with the wife of his sister-in-law’s brother. “She kept calling me. The rescuers could also even hear her yelling,” he says standing outside his house, which is located around one kilometre away from the collapsed buildings. A tent has been set up outside the house where mourners keep pouring in for condolences.

“Bring me out, bring me out, she yelled, and we could only hear her helpless voice,” Ghori says.The last person trapped in the rubble whom he spoke to was his brother-in-law Farukh, a lecturer at the Federal Urdu University. “He last called me at around 9:30pm and shared how he was facing difficulty in breathing,” he recalls and adds that he kept his eyes glued to his mobile phone praying for more phone calls until the body of his last family member was brought out.

An additional sixth floor was being constructed on the building that first collapsed on Thursday. As it tilted to a side, it damaged a three-floor residential building, which in turn damaged another neighbouring two-floor residential building.

The building in the middle, according to Ghori, housed at least 20 people, of whom a few managed to flee when the incident took place. Fourteen got stuck, of whom five were rescued alive and the rest were taken out dead. The last body to be taken out from his family was of his brother’s mother-in-law.

Repeated complaints

Not once but repeatedly, Ghori had pointed out to the SBCA that the building, which was the first one to collapse, had tilted. Around 20 years ago, he says, it was just a single storey house build on some 70 square yards. The additional five floors were recently constructed on the building.

Just three days back, Ghori’s family had a verbal dispute with the owner of the building, Muhammad Jawed, as some construction work was going on.

“We pointed out to him that the building is wobbly and he must do something about it.” Jawed, who was also stuck inside after the collapse, was brought out alive. His wife Fatima, who is a homoeopathic doctor was at her clinic in Sohrab Goth when the incident took place.

Around 20 days back, the building had slightly caved in, Ghori points out. He adds that repair work was going on and during that, the tragedy occurred.

Missing people

Khuzema, 13, was roaming on his motorcycle in random directions in the narrow alleys of the area in search of his tai [aunt], who went for grocery on Thursday morning near the collapsed building and never returned since then. He fears that she might be walking past the buildings when they collapsed.

There were labourers working at the collapsed building who are all missing. Fatima also ran a homoeopathic clinic on the ground floor of the building where there used to be at least four staffers who are all, according to Ghori, feared dead. “There are still around 22 people, dead or alive, trapped in the buildings.”

Den of illegal construction

There seems to be another time bomb ticking in the area, 400-Quarters, as it has become a den of illegal constructions.

The Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) criminally turned a blind eye to the construction of many seven to eight floors over plots covering just 60 to 80 square yards in the area.

One such example is of ground-plus-four-storey residential building, Noor Mehal, which is constructed over an eight-foot-wide and 70-foot-long plot, some two kilometres away from the place of the incident.

“We now fear that this building can collapse at any moment,” said one of the residents who wished not to be named.

SBCA officials suspended

The SBCA director general has suspended as many as four officials of the authority in the wake of the incident. According to a notification issued by the SBCA, due to the incident of building collapse situated on 400-Quarters adjacent to Rizvia Society in Liaquatabad Town, the authority had suspended four of its officials of the town, including Additional Director Sarfaraz Jamali, Assistant Director Maqsood Qureshi, and building inspectors Abid Bhutto and Irfan Ali.

Regarding the cause of the collapse, SBCA Director Dangerous Buildings Beenish Shabbir believes it was the construction work for the extension of the underground tank in the first building that caused it to cave in. “We believe this to be the main cause of the collapse, as buildings just don’t fall without any major reason,” he told The News and added that they had spoken to one of the residents of the building who confirmed that work was under way on the extension of the underground water tank.

It is, however, very difficult to ascertain the exact reason of the collapse with full certainty before the rescue work ends, says Shabbir. Even two days after the collapse, the building control authority is yet to figure out the details of the building approval.

“We will dig out who gave the building approval and issued fitness certificate,” he said and added that when the rubble will be cleared, the actual position will come out.

As for the sixth floor being constructed, he said it had not been established as yet. There are one or two floors which have been smashed and three floors which fell on the neighbouring building, he said, adding that the sixth floor is nowhere in sight.