October 21, 2021
Control Blast Demolition for Nesla Tower
In compliance to the order of Supreme Court, Karachi district administration disconnected all utility connections of water, electricity and gas of controversial Nesla Tower. It has also invited open bids through advertisements for `controlled blasting` demolition of the 15-storey building, located at the intersection of Shara-e-Faisal and Shahrah- e-Quadeen.
Commissioner Karachi wrote to the Frontier Works Organization seeking assistance in razing the illegal building. Thereafter he also chaired a meeting at his office to discuss with the experts from Frontier Works Organization, Sindh Building Control Authority, mines and mineral department and others for the demolition of the building using controlled detonation. He also requested FWO Director General to furnish technical and seismic feasibility of Nasla Tower within two days for taking necessary action to demolish the building.
Many residents have vacated the residency and only a few are left inside, as reported in the media.
Demolition of Tejori Heights
After Nasla Tower, the Supreme Court ordered demolition of Tejori Heights, an under-construction multi-storey building in Gulshan-i-Iqbal and gave the builder and authorities four weeks to implement its order. The court directed the Karachi commissioner and builders to demolish Tejori Heights Tower after the counsel for builders could not establish the ownership of the land being used for the construction of the residential complex.
The apex court had observed that the construction on the land was illegal as documents produced in court were manipulated and could not prove the ownership of the builders on the subject land. As the lawyer for Pakistan Railways argued that the land in question had been allotted to the railways for the Karachi Circular Railways (KCR) and an illegal construction was being made by the builders after preparing forged documents of the land.
The court directed the builders to refund the amount to allotttees within three months and also asked the commissioner to ensure that the process of demolition and removal of debris was completed within the stipulated period.
Naya Pakistan’ Unmet Target of Hosing Loans
Despite appreciating the progress made by the banking industry in supporting low-cost housing finance, the SBP Governor Dr Reza Baqir reveals that the banks’ lending for low-cost housing in the country was extremely poor, with disbursements reaching barely Rs 18 billion against loan applications seeking Rs 200bn.
Banks remained extremely cautious while lending for housing and construction despite support from the government and encouragement from the SBP. As according to data banks have received applications of more than Rs 200bn and they have approved financing of Rs 78bn out of which Rs 18bn has already been disbursed.
Mr Baqir stressed the need to accelerate the pace of approvals by banks to match the requests for financing to ensure that people are not discouraged by the processing time and also asked stakeholders to increase outreach of the Government’s Markup Subsidy Scheme for Housing Finance commonly known as Mera Pakistan Mera Ghar (MPMG) to the wider public.
KSA target Net Zero Emission by 2060
Days before the COP26 global climate summit, the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced that Saudi Arabia´s target is to reach “net zero emissions by 2060.” “I am pleased to launch initiatives in the energy sector that will reduce carbon emissions by 278 million tons annually by 2030, thus voluntarily more than doubling the target announced,” said Prince Mohammed at the Saudi Green Initiative forum.
The kingdom is one of the world´s biggest polluters, as it is estimated to emit about 600 million tons of carbon dioxide per year. Muhammad bin Salman also revealed that his country would also join a global effort to cut methane emissions by 30% till 2030.
COP26 President Alok Sharma welcomed the announcement by stating “I hope this landmark announcement… will galvanise ambition from others ahead of #COP26,” in his tweet and added he was looking forward to seeing more details on the Saudi plan.
Climate Disasters a Challenge to Pakistan Development
In a latest report `South Asia Climate Change Action Plan 2021-25”, the World Bank mentions that climate change and natural disasters pose a major challenge to Pakistan`s development, and an estimated 49 million people reside in areas that face the risk of a four-to-five per cent decline in quality of life by 2030.
According to the report, Pakistan is increasingly exposed and vulnerable to various natural hazards, particularly floods, cyclones, droughts and earthquakes. Combined with these vulnerabilities, disasters have caused significant loss of life, economic damage and reversal of development gains over the past 15 years. In addition, flooding causes extensive direct and indirect health effects, including impacts on food production, water provision, ecosystem disruption, infectious disease outbreak, and vector distribution, according to the report.
Pakistan is the 36th most vulnerable country to climate change, the 36th least-ready country in the `Natural Disaster Gain Country Index`, and ranks as the fifth most affected country by climate change shocks from 1990 to 2018.
