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| October 23, 2005 | Sunday | Ramzan 18, 1426 |
SC orders temporary housing for residents: Margalla Towers death toll rises to 73
ISLAMABAD, Oct 22: The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to provide temporary accommodation of equal status to 140 displaced residents of the Margalla Towers.
It is the legal obligation of CDA to provide an alternative accommodation to the affected residents till the time the buildings vacated are reconstructed or other arrangements made, a four-member bench observed while admitting the petition for regular hearing.
The bench comprises Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, Justice Shakirullah Jan and Justice Hamid Ali Mirza.
The owners or tenants of the building had been dislodged because of damage that seemed to have been caused to the towers due to earthquake prime facie on account of substandard construction under the supervision of CDA, a three-page order said.
Earlier, the court was to hear the case in Lahore on Tuesday but later it was rescheduled for Friday in Islamabad.
The case will again be taken up on Friday.
The court also directed the Inspector General of Police to submit a comprehensive report on the steps taken to arrest those named in the FIR registered with the Shalimar police station.
Accommodation by hiring residences should be equivalent to the status of damaged flats, or if not possible then the chairman CDA should form in three days a committee to assess the rent of these flats and pay to the owners or tenants of the apartment blocks on monthly basis so that they could make their own arrangements, the order said.
The authority has also been restrained from transferring or alienating plots of the land on which the collapsed/damaged building is located.
The court also issued notices to the respondents through the deputy commissioner, while Attorney General Makhdoom Ali Khan has been directed to appear in the court in the next hearing.
The CDA chairman, Kamran Lashari, Chaudhry Construction Company Associates, architects, engineers and developers and its Managing Director Muhammad Ramzan Khokhar have been made respondents in the case.
Petitioners Saad Mazhar, Humayun Ahmed, Rukhsana Durrani and Farid Madhit had requested the court to constitute a committee of architects and engineers to review the building laws and suggest amendments to contain any such contingency in future.
Led by eminent lawyer Sharifuddin Pirzada, the panel of lawyers comprises Hamid Khan, Salman Aslam Butt, Barrister Zahoorul Haq, Malik Muhammad Qayyum, Muhammad Waqar Rana, Hadi Shakeel and A Q Halepota.
TOLL AT 73: Six more bodies including four Swedish and a Spanish were recovered from underground water tank of Margalla Towers bringing the death toll to 73.
The bodies were recovered after 13 days of Margalla Towers tragedy.
Following are the persons whose bodies were recovered: Madelein Giobel, 35, Emdla Giobel, 7, Elias Giobel and Eira Giobel, 2, a Spanish national Enrique Lafarge and a Pakistani national Naseem Ahmed.
However, two people Mrs Naseem Ahmed, 70, and one Syed Monas resident of flat No-309 are still missing. The Swedish family was living in a flat No-905, while Mr Naseem and Spanish national were residing in Flats No-805 and 1005 respectively.
Some of the eye witnesses said the bodies were recovered after winding up of the rescue operation and teams were leaving the site.
“At that time we thought that if the rescue team returns, who will recover the missing bodies. Then we requested the army team to carry out search of underground water tank so that if any other body was there, could be recovered,” a resident of the building said.
“However, a question was still unresolved that how the people living on eighth and ninth floor of the building went into under ground water tank,” the resident said.
He said half of the fifth block of the Margalla Towers in which these five people were living, fell vertically but did not cave in. “This could be one of the reasons that the bodies were thought to be in underground water tank.
In the meantime, an official of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Administration said a meeting, presided over secretary interior, was held at the site of collapsed Margalla Towers to review the search operation for the missing person.
Commander III Brigade, chief Commissioner and IG Police were prominent among the participants. It was decided that all efforts would be made to locate the missing persons, the official said. It was decided to carry out excavation of an underground water tank filled with rubble in the closed vicinity of collapsed Towers, he said.
“Fortunately, when the engineers of Frontier Works Organization and Islamabad Fire Brigade started digging, the bodies of four members of a Swedish family, a Spanish national a local man were recovered and shifted to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences,” he said.
He said the excavation of the remaining portion of the water tank was under progress which was expected to be completed by Saturday morning. It was hoped that the bodies of the rest of the missing persons would also be recovered soon, he added.
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