Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Building Control Section (BCS) of the Capital Development Authority and the Emergency and Disaster Management (E&DM) of the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) have come to logger-heads, as they are placing the responsibility of enforcing life and safety regulations on each other.

According to the documents obtained under the freedom of information, it is stated that the Deputy Director E&DM, Ammaduddin is of the view that due to the lack of staff the E&DM directorate couldn’t enforce the law in the capital.

While, in another letter, written by the BCS directorate it is stated that the implementation of Life and Safety Regulations 2010 falls under the purview of the Emergency and Disaster Management Directorate.

The BCS indicates in its letter written to the E&DM on Monday that “If these letters (written by E&DM) are read together, then it clearly shows that at one stage the E&DM shows the inability to enforce life and safety regulations, 2010 and on the other hand the emergency directorate is trying to shift the responsibility on to the BCS and in another letter the DD E&DM is writing a letter to the owners of property wherein the directorate threatens them to comply with the life and regulatory regulations with consequences that if the owners fail to comply with them within one month from the date of issuance of instructions from the E&&DM then the case will be proceeded for imposition of a penalty, sealing of property and imposition of fine. It has rightly been said that ‘Action speaks louder than words’.”

While talking to Daily Times, the Director for BCS, Shafi Marwat has said that the directorate of E&DM is doing unnecessary correspondence with the BCS.

He said that on the demand of E&DM to depute a dedicated building inspector for the inspection of buildings starting from the Diplomatic Enclave, the police stations, the government offices, the honourable courts, the Blue Area, the I& T centres and high rise buildings, the BCS directorate has deployed an inspector for this purpose.

The Director BCS claimed that the Directorate of E&DM had the authority to seal the premises or any building which commits violations, under the Life and Safety Regulations, 2010.

He said that the additional charge of Deputy Director Enforcement was also given to the DD E&DM and if he wants to enforce life safety regulations then he has the powers.

When contacted, the Deputy Director E&DM said that the Building Control Section (BCS) had the responsibility as they had the man-force and power under the law.

He said that the member estate had been told that the owners of property would seek the NOC under life and safety regulations from the E&DM directorate but unfortunately the orders have yet to be implemented.

If the BCS directorate directs all the owners to seek the No Objection Certificate from the E&DM in order to get the NOC from the BCS then it might be helpful in enforcing the life and safety regulations in the capital, he concluded.

An official of the CDA who requested not to be named said that the letters which were written by both the directorates evidently show that no authority was interested in enforcing law and order in the city. However, this matter demanded the attention of high officials, he added.

It may be mentioned here that the E&DM directorate had written various letters to the BCS and owners of the property to install fire prevention equipment in the commercial areas of Islamabad.