November 10, 2005	Thursday	Shawwal 7, 1426

AMONG many issues raised, the October 8 earthquake has caused serious concern about the safety of multistorey apartments and high-rise buildings in the country’s major cities. It has brought into question the way high-rise buildings are planned and built. Plazas and commercial centres are mushrooming all over, and while these are seen as a sign of increasing commercial activity, are they being built safely and according to plan? Or are structures being raised that could topple and kill people? How well prepared are we for the next earthquake? Dawn reporters look at some of the questions in these reports filed from Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, Quetta, Peshawar, Faisalabad and Hyderabad.

Islamabad rocked into need for new laws OCTOBER 8’s 7.6 earthquake has changed the entire concept of multi-storey residential buildings and a long period is required to restore people’s confidence in living in tall apartments buildings....		Karachi’s vulnerable high-rises EXPERTS feel certain that a number of high-rises and ‘dangerous buildings’ in the city will not be able to withstand a severe earthquake....
Lahore: this time lucky THE capital of Punjab may have escaped the destruction wrought by the Oct 8 earthquake in the north of the country, but experts maintain that high rises that have cropped up...		No building regulations since the ‘Quetta bylaws’ THE Quetta valley, which bore the burnt of the 1935 earthquake that claimed 70,000 lives, has seen unplanned commercialization of the real estate sector over the years, a recipe for disaster in the event of another severe earthquake....
Devolution causes building confusion in Peshawar A TOOTHLESS regulatory authority amid confusion caused by the devolution plan has made Peshawar grow in a haphazard and an unplanned manner. Government officials and experts warn that lack of enforcement...		Widespread violations in Faisalabad BELIEVE it or not, but as many as 385 multi- storey buildings have been constructed in Faisalabad in violation of building laws and basic principles of engineering and architecture and without approval from the departments concerned....
Strict enforcement of building rules needed in Hyderabad UNPLANNED construction of highrises and plazas have made the historic city of Hyderabad vulnerable to earthquakes and other natural disasters....