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KARACHI: Survivors of a building collapse that killed 27 people in the Pakistani city of Karachi were trying on Monday to come to terms with the loss of loved ones and their homes.

The five-story building collapsed on Friday in the overcrowded inner-city Lyari district where many working-class and poor families live in aging apartment blocks. The site is now a tangle of twisted metal, shattered concrete and scattered belongings, schoolbooks, shoes and sewing machines.

On Monday, rescue officials said the death toll had reached 27 and dozens of people were being housed in makeshift shelters following the building’s collapse and the evacuation of nearby buildings over structural fears.

“I grew up in that building. I knew everyone who lived there,” said Imdad Hussain, 28, a fisherman who lost neighbors, childhood friends and seven members of his extended family.

He is now sheltering with relatives, and family members are in mourning as they try to figure out what the future holds.

“We’ve lost our home, our people. I don’t know how we’ll start again,” he said.

Officials in Karachi, the capital of the southeastern province of Sindh, said the building had received multiple evacuation notices since 2023, including a final one in late June.

Saeed Ghani, Provincial Minister of Sindh for Local Governments, said the Karachi commissioner — who oversees the city administration — had been tasked with inspecting 51 buildings identified as “extremely dangerous” to prevent similar collapses.

BUILDING SHOOK VIOLENTLY

Residents said the building in Lyari, which has been home to generations of working-class families from minority and migrant backgrounds, shook violently on Friday before collapsing in a cloud of dust.

Rescue workers had been digging through the debris since Friday but declared the search over late on Sunday.

They said about 100 residents from 12 families had been living in the building, and nearly 50 more families had been displaced after three neighboring buildings were declared unsafe and evacuated.

Lakshmi, a school janitor who lived next door to the collapsed building, said her sister had lived in the building that came down and called moments before it fell to say it was shaking.

Her sister survived, but Lakshmi feared losing the gold she had left with her for safekeeping before her daughter’s wedding.

“We got out with our lives, but everything else is gone, with no certainty about what is to come,” Lakshmi said.

ISLAMABAD: The chief executive of UAE-based telecom firm Etisalat met Pakistan’s deputy prime minister in Islamabad on Monday and reaffirmed the group’s long-term investment commitment to the country, Pakistan’s ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar hosted Etisalat Group CEO Hatem Dowidar and a high-level delegation that included top Pakistani officials from the IT, commerce, and privatization ministries, as well as the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC).

Dar highlighted Pakistan’s “growing digital economy and the government’s commitment to fostering a business-friendly environment. He invited Etisalat Group to expand its investments in the country’s ICT and telecom sectors,” a statement from the foreign ministry said. 

Dowidar “appreciated the Government of Pakistan’s consistent support” and expressed interest in contributing to the country’s digital connectivity and growth goals, the statement added.

Etisalat currently owns a 26 percent stake in Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), a former state-owned enterprise that was partially privatized in 2006. However, the transaction has been mired in disputes, with Etisalat withholding $800 million of the sale price over issues related to the transfer of properties promised as part of the deal.

Pakistan’s repeated efforts to fully privatize PTCL have faced delays due to the unresolved asset transfer issue and lack of consensus on valuation. The government has said resolving the matter with Etisalat is crucial for moving forward with broader privatization goals, especially under commitments tied to IMF-supported economic reforms.