Roof of faculty member’s office at KU collapses

The roof of the office of a female faculty member of the Karachi University biochemistry department collapsed on Friday morning during working hours. However, no casualties were fortunately reported in the incident.

According to Dr Syeda Fizza Naqvi, who used the office, the incident took place when she left the office and went to her colleague’s office to discuss some academic issues. “Luckily, I was not present in my office at the time when its roof collapsed.”

She claimed that since the last year, she had been moving applications to the varsity administration for repair of dilapidated offices. “Looking at the falling pieces of the ceiling, I was expecting such an incident. This is why I repeatedly approached the high-ups of the department to take timely action. But all actions were limited to paperwork only.”

This is not the only office of the KU that collapsed during working hours. The roofs of various offices and laboratories at the biochemistry department have collapsed in the past. “The whole process of repairing is limited to drawing attention, paying visits, making estimates and assessments. No repairing and construction work was started by the concerned department. It seems that teachers of the department are forced to fulfil their responsibilities at the risk of lives,” Dr Fizza said.