KARACHI - The ban on construction of high-rise and other buildings has started taking toll as all steel re-rolling mills in Sindh and Balochistan have been closed for indefinite period for want of customers and almost 25 thousands workers have lost their livelihoods.

Muhammad Hassan Bakshi, Chairman Association of Builders and Developers of Pakistan (ABAD), said that aftershocks of ban on high-rise and unnecessary hurdles for NOCs issuance have started as 70 steel re-rolling mills of Sindh and Balochistan are closed due to very slow consumption of steel bars. Resultantly, 25 thousands of workers have lost their livelihood, he added.

He said that the Supreme Court of Pakistan had banned construction of multi-story buildings in Karachi on a wrongly-depicted water crisis report by Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KW&SB). He lamented that five lacks workers are rendered jobless due to ban on construction in Karachi but Sindh government has not taken any concrete step to resolve water issue despite passage of 19 months of construction ban in Karachi and now this ban has reached to Hyderabad as well.

He said that the Supreme Court, after total ban on high-rise construction, has allowed ground plus six floor construction but, allegedly, water commission appointed by the SC has imposed condition of NOCs from utilities agencies before approval of plan by the Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) and has instructed KW&SB not to issue any water NOC for new building construction forcing SBCA not to approve building plan.

He said that more than Rs600 billion investment has been stopped due to ban and hundreds of thousands of people including architects, engineers are rendered jobless and now closure of production by steel re-rolling mills has added oil to fire as 25 thousand of workers have been laid-off. We fear that after closure of steel re-rolling mills, more allied industries will be closed, he lamented.