RAWALPINDI, April 11: The district government has imposed a ban on the construction of new commercial plazas throughout the district and directed the Tehsil Municipal Administrations (TMA) to strictly implement its instructions.

The directives to this effect were issued by District Nazim Raja Tariq Kiani at a meeting of Tehsil officers, held at his office on Friday.

The main purpose of the ban is to enable the TMA to complete its survey of under-construction buildings. The ban will remain in place till survey’s completion.

Earlier, Mr Kiani, accompanied by Tehsil Nazim and other TMA officers, visited various Tehsil areas and directed the police to arrest 27 people, including contractors, supervisors and labourers, on the spot for carrying out illegal constructions.

The district Nazim said strict action would be taken against TMA building branch officers concerned if any plaza was found to have been constructed without proper approval.

He directed the TMA officers to conduct an impartial survey of buildings, and not to accept any kind of pressure in this respect. He also constituted a committee to conduct a survey of old buildings, and to ensure safety of historical constructions.

Tehsil Municipal Officer Malik Mumtaz will be the head of the committee, which will submit its report to the Tehsil Nazim.

The old buildings considered dangerous will be vacated to avoid recurrence of incidents like Bano Arcade collapse.

Mr Kiani also ordered razing of two upper storeys of Askari Commercial Bank Plaza that had been constructed without approval.

Mohammad Asghar ADDS: Seven more plaza owners are likely to be booked by the district police as their construction has been found “substandard and illegal”, a police official said on Friday.

New Town Police Station SHO Sohail Ijaz told Dawn that cases against these plaza owners had been prepared and FIRs were likely to be registered within couple of days. “After checking, the construction material of these plazas was found of poor quality,” he added.

He said a team of experts was checking building material and documents of all under-construction plazas.

The police launched a crackdown on commercial building owners, using poor-quality construction material and violating prescribed rules, after the collapse of Bano Arcade in Commercial Market on April 4.

The multi-storey commercial building collapsed when labourers were working on its top floor, claiming lives of seven people and leaving many injured.

Earlier, five plaza owners had been arrested by the police on charges of using substandard construction material and violating building bye-laws. However, they were released on April 8 after the civil judge accepted their interim bail.

At least 28 commercial buildings had been constructed in the city in violation of approved design. A survey report on illegal construction of plazas had already been sent to the Tehsil Municipal Administration.