Teenage dies after home roof falls on him in DHA

Mustafa Hashmi, a 17-year-old student at Nixor College, Karachi was killed when a large piece of concrete from his roof broke off and fell on him in Defence Housing Authority (DHA), Phase-VII.

While speaking to Dawn, his grief-stricken father, Mahmood Hashmi, an architect himself by profession, said that Mustafa was their only son. He was preparing for the A-level examinations and had already appeared in two papers.

According to him, the family of three got a portion on rent around six months ago. They were told to get the house repaired with their own finances, which they did.

He recalled that on 26 Ramzan, he and his wife Khadija Hashmi and their son were asleep in the room when a heavy thick piece of concrete slab fell on them. The parents remained safe however the concrete piece fell on Mustafa’s head.

“My son died in his sleep as he did not cry or utter any word,” Hashmi recalled.

The father complained that a private hospital refused to give them Mustafa’s death certificate and cited legal complications.

He then took his son to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre to get a death certificate where he used sifarish (recommendation) to get it.

“My son died due to negligence; had the owner maintained its repair properly, my son would have been alive today,” said the father.

He said he might not seek legal proceedings.