Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: About 25 high rise buildings have become potential threat for thousands of people in Islamabad as the owners have not started the repairing despite the lapse of six months.

Islamabad is located on the seismic fault line reasoning the inhabitants of the federal capital are living in the grip of fear every time especially after the earthquakes that jolted the city in recent past.

The documentary evidence available with Daily Times revealed that some major cracks have been appeared in the roofs and walls of these multi-story buildings and the structures has not strength to bear any additional load or cause huge threat to lives at the time of earthquake.

These dangerous buildings included 17 skyscrapers located in Blue Area, two in E-11 Markaz, three at F-10 Markaz, two at F-11 Markaz and one is situated at G-11 Markaz. There are thousands of people living in these buildings, which were declared unsafe by civic body and owners were asked to ensure renovation. These buildings are also threat to shops, plazas and offices situated near these shaky structures.

It is responsibility of Building Control Section (BCS) of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to issue correctness certificate after thorough inspection to all residential and commercial buildings that are constructed at Islamabad.

The BCS had prepared a report about the building safety in October 2015, which was dispatched to Member Planning CDA, Wasim Ahmed Khan in which the appearance of cracks in about 25 buildings in Islamabad was reported. Member Planning issued the orders to the owners to revamp their buildings timely to avoid any untoward incident and loss of human lives.

The notice also warned the owners if they fail to comply with the orders, their buildings would be sealed, the report revealed. But ironically the notice has gone unnoticed and not even a single building owner bothered to kick off repair and renovation nor they took any step to vacate their perilous edifices and even CDA did not seal any building during six months.

The slackness of civic body in this regard has caused the life threat to thousands of dwellers of these structures, as the people being at the helm of affairs in the CDA have put the report in cold storage for personal gains.

The sources in the CDA told this scribe that some of these structures are in such a bad shape that any earthquake slight higher magnitude can cause havoc to thousands lives in federal capital.

A citizen Muhammad Irshad told Daily Times that cracks became visible in Margalla Towers, a portion of which was damaged in 2005 devastating earthquake. But the officials of the CDA did nothing but issue a notice to its owner only, he added.

The buildings, which were affected in 2015 earthquakes, included Royal Plaza at E-11 Markaz, Executive Plaza at E-11/2, Millennium 17 at F-11/1, Al-Mustafa Towers at F/10 Markaz, Silver Oaks at F/10 , Soneri Bank Plaza at G/11 Markaz, Abu Dhabi Plaza situated at F-11/1.

In Blue Area the plazas situated at 21 East, 23 West, 23 East, 30 East,44 East, 54 West, 62 West 96 East, 96 West, 101 East, 101 West, 106 East and 111 West.

When Daily Times contacted Director BCS Shafi Marwat he said in 2015 Director Zahid Sultan sent the notices to the owners of these buildings asked them to submit report of building structure prepared by NESPAK to the CDA but there was no response from the proprietors. He said that these buildings are not in such form that can be a reason for loss of lives.

Member CDA Wasim Ahmed told this scribe that today (Wednesday) notice would be again issued to them and soon strict action would be taken against the landlords who deny the previous orders of the department.