| November 20, 2005 | Sunday | Shawwal 17, 1426 |
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Buildings kill, earthquakes don’t
“MUSHARRAF pledges transparency; check by foreign auditors,” read a lead headline in yesterday’s issue of this newspaper. The report tells us that President Pervez Musharraf “held out the assurance in the presence of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan” [‘I swear by all that is holy....’].
He has assured Mr Anan, the world and us that “there would be transparency and accountability of earthquake relief assistance flowing into Pakistan from other countries and donor agencies.”
But the general cannot obliterate history. Perhaps he has forgotten — or is even unaware — of the fate of the four million dollars given to our former prime minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, by President Muammar Qadhafi of Libya when an earthquake struck the northern areas in the 1970s. And what is it that foreign auditors can do? In the 1990s, did not another former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, appoint SGS-Cotecna of Switzerland to check import duties and revenues? Did not she and her spouse allegedly profit from healthy kickbacks awarded to them by these auditors and accountants which are now the subject of a Swiss court case involving money laundering?
Though we all pay for our sins in one way or another, would it not be better to cease sinning?
We now revert, yet again, to the fraught and dangerous building scenario of Karachi. The Sindh government has in its ranks a minister of sorts, one Waseem Akhtar who is recognized as the adviser to the chief minister of Sindh and holds the portfolio of local government under which come housing and town planning and the Karachi Building Control Authority. As a minister from 1997 to 1999 he held the same portfolio and can thus now be justifiably held responsible for many of the wrongdoings of the ministry he headed and now again heads.
Take for example the KBCA, and one of its building controllers of sorts, renowned and lauded for his corrupt skills - Akhlaq Ahmed, the all-in-all under the chief controller of buildings. Dawn’s Metropolitan section yesterday reported that “Justice Munib Ahmed Khan of the High Court of Sindh on Friday issued notice to the State for Nov 21 in bail applications filed by Akhlaq Ahmed, consultant to KBCA’s chief controller ....... Earlier, the Provincial Anti-Corruption Court rejected the bail application of the accused on Wednesday .....”. Akhlaq Ahmed was arrested last month and is being held on charges of corruption.
Adviser Waseem Akhtar is the man responsible for keeping Akhlaq Ahmed in a position where he was encouraged and allowed to practise his skills. In December 2004, the expert adviser sent a summary to the chief minister on the subject of Mr Akhlaq Ahmed BPS-18 who retired as secretary to the governor’s Inspection Team on 10/3/03 and was subsequently granted a fresh contract at the same grade for two years in the KBCA where he “performed duties as COB - Coordination, Enquiries and Special Arrangements.” (This last ‘duty’ is rather intriguing.)
The pertinent paragraph of Mr Akhtar’s summary is paragraph 3 : “Vide notification No. SOII(S&GAD) 3-23 dated 7 June 2004 (attached), the Competent Authority terminated the contract. After an investigation into the observations personally by the undersigned it was concluded that said officer be cleared of blame which primarily was motivated by ill-will, and in all fairness it was therefore expedient that his contract may be restored forthwith till the termination of his original 2 years contract up to 28 June 2005.”
For the next three months the placid chief minister sat on the summary and Akhlaq Ahmed sat firmly on his official chair. At the end of February, the chief minister noted on the summary : “Para 3 approved and no further extension will be allowed after June 2005.”
In June, Akhlaq Ahmed converted to being a ‘private consultant’ and continued to ‘advise’ the chief controller of buildings. He set up office in a building next to the KBCA offices and all files were routed to him for his decision and ‘advice’. This situation continued until he was arrested. Shortly after his arrest, his ‘boss’ and one of his accomplices, Chief Controller of Buildings Brigadier A S Nasir, resigned.
The damage done by the three gentlemen named above and their accomplices in and out of government is manifest. In the event of any natural calamity striking Karachi, lives will be lost. The coalition government glued together by General Musharraf, in his own perceived self-interest, is a calamity and can do him no good.
Dangerous buildings abound in Karachi. The present chief secretary of Sindh, Fazlur Rahman, is an enlightened man. He may be able to prevail upon the governor and his government and, reminding them of the October disaster, persuade them to take into consideration the safety of life and limb of the citizens of the province over which they rule, and particularly of Karachi, a mega city now approaching a population in the range of 14-15 million.
Building regulations and codes must be reviewed and updated to conform to the latest findings, experiences, and standards for seismic, fire and all other safety issues. A proper and comprehensive code will take many years to develop — but a start must be made at some point, and when more fitting than now, at a time when it has been made so blatantly obvious that the safety of our lives has been of no concern to the government.
