ISLAMABAD: Besides being the third day of Eid, Wednesday was also the anniversary of the catastrophic earthquake that hit the northwest of the country, including Azad Kashmir, on October 8 nine years ago.

The day was a sorrowful reminder for the relatives of thousands of people who lost their lives on that day, including those who died when Margalla Towers in Sector F-10 came crashing down, killing 70 people and injuring 80 others.

A number of people visited the site and prayed for their loved ones. Besides, scouts and those who survived the incident also visited the memorial built in remembrance for the deceased.

Also read: A long wait for quake victims

It may be mentioned here that Margalla Towers was one of Islamabad’s first highrise residential buildings.

Survivor complains inquiry report has still not been made public

Iftikhar Chaudhry, one of the survivors of the eartquake, while talking to Dawn, said although around Rs2.7 billion were paid as compensation to 143 families who were living in the tower, so far responsibility for the poor construction of the building has not been fixed on anyone.

“Soon after the incident, the then prime minister, Shaukat Aziz, constituted an inquiry committee headed by retired Lt-Gen Farooq Ahmad Khan tasked with determining the facts that led to the collapse of the towers,” he said.

“But unfortunately the 1,600-page report of the inquiry committee has not been made public due to which responsibility of the incident has not been fixed. The person who built Margalla Towers even received compensation as he owned seven flats in the building and then left the country,” Mr Chaudhry claimed.

“Unfortunately, in Pakistan reports of tragic incidents are swept under the carpet,” he said, adding that “survivors have demanded that the report be made public and people who had been declared responsible in the report, should be punished.”

Ceremony in Muzaffarabad

A prayer ceremony was held in the K.H. Khurshid Football Stadium, where a memorial for the victims has been built.

AJK ministers Chaudhry Latif Akbar, Abdul Majid Khan, Chaudhry Mohammad Rasheed, Tahir Khokhar and AJK president’s adviser Raja Sajid Hussain were among the participants of the ceremony.

However, absence of AJK Prime Minister Chaudhry Abdul Majeed at the earthquake anniversary function was badly felt.

The prime minister was in Kashmir House Islamabad on Wednesday, but an AJK press information department handout quoted his conversations with various delegations with Muzaffarabad dateline.

According to the handout, Mr Majeed appreciated the resilience of the Kashmiris in the face of earthquakes, floods and Indian shelling along LoC.

Back at the stadium, sirens were sounded at 8:52am and a one-minute silence was observed.

The ministers laid floral wreath at the memorial following which Fateha was offered for the departed souls.

At the end of the ceremony, a walk was held under the aegis of State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) to create awareness of the calamities.

An official at the State Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency (Serra) informed journalists that from October 2013 till October 2014, 123 projects, including 68 in education sector, had been completed, in spite of financial problems.

Sardar Rahim Khan, secretary Serra, said a total of 7,965 projects were conceived for the quake-affected areas and of those 5,156 had been completed and 1,741 were under construction.

As many as 1,068 projects could not be initiated due to financial constraints, he said, adding that 688 of those were for the education sector, he added.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2014