A recent report published in AFP shares some serious concern about Karachi being a potential disaster spot for an earthquake. Though the faultline lies a little to our west but a major the major bustling city of Pakistan is seemingly ill prepared for such a disaster if it were to God Forbid strike

AFP ^[1]: Seismologists say Karachi is as much at risk from earthquakes as Los Angeles. But unlike the sprawling US west coast city, or other supercities lying on or near faultlines, Pakistan’s business capital is ill-equipped to cope if disaster strikes, according to experts. “We are not realising the danger we are surrounded by.” Noman Ahmed, an architect associated with Karachi’s NED University of Engineering and Technology estimates that virtually all of the city’s 500,000 buildings are structurally unsound.

“Not more than five percent of our buildings are constructed by following the building rules. The rest are self-built by builders without taking any professional advice,” he added. “You can see negligible provisions for evacuation or accessibility in our buildings. There are no fire or hazard escapes in the majority of structures. Our firemen are brave but they are few in number,” said Masood Alam, chief of Karachi’s municipal services department. “We have just 50 fire tenders and 20 fire stations. We need much more professional staff, at least 365 fire tenders and 178 fire stations in Karachi.”

There are only 10,000 hospital beds and one doctor for every 1,500 people. “We are totally unprepared to cope with major disasters,” said Dr Shershah Syed, a former secretary general of Pakistan Medical Association