LAHORE — A teacher trapped for hours under the rubble of a collapsed tuition centre in Lahore’s Township area has contradicted official claims regarding the building’s structural integrity. While local authorities initially blamed the incident on heavy monsoon rains, the testimony from inside the classroom suggests a long-ignored history of neglect.
Muhammad Aslam, who sustained multiple fractures when the roof gave way on Tuesday, told investigators that staff had flagged deep cracks in the ceiling to the building’s management weeks ago. His account challenges the narrative provided by the district administration, which has largely focused on the structural impact of recent weather patterns.
“We heard the creaking long before the slab fell,” Aslam said from his hospital bed at Jinnah Hospital. He claims the administration dismissed the warnings, citing the cost of repairs and a lack of alternative space for the students.
The collapse, which left three students dead and over a dozen injured, has ignited a firestorm regarding the city’s unregulated private education sector. Thousands of tuition centres operate in Lahore’s residential zones, often in converted houses never designed to hold the weight of heavy furniture or dozens of students.
The Building Control Authority (LDA) maintains that the centre was operating without a safety certificate. However, this raises a separate question: why were inspectors unaware of the facility? The centre had been running for three years in a high-density neighborhood, yet it remained off the official radar until the roof fell.
A senior official within the city administration, speaking on the condition of anonymity, admitted that the current inspection regime is largely reactive. “We respond to complaints,” the official said. “We don’t have the manpower to canvas every street for illegal commercial conversions.”
Aslam’s account suggests that even when complaints are made, they die in the hands of management. For the families of the victims, the bureaucratic finger-pointing offers little comfort.
The police have registered a case against the building owner and the tuition centre’s director, both of whom have reportedly gone into hiding. As search operations conclude, the focus shifts to whether this tragedy will force a genuine audit of Lahore’s thousands of makeshift classrooms, or if the city will simply wait for the next structural failure.
