MURREE: According to a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report submitted in the Lahore High Court by the Punjab government, around 50pc of Murree’s population is under serious threat of earthquakes and consequent landslides.

The report states that the greatest danger is that of landslides as a result of a likely earthquake, as the hills of Murree bear 30pc more buildings than its burden bearing capacity.

Construction in Murree has been banned by the Punjab government for around nine years, including the construction of small five marla residential buildings. Multi-storey buildings are still constructed by politically influential individuals in connivance with Town Municipal Administration (TMA) staffers despite the ban.

After eight petitions were filed in the LHC Rawalpindi Bench, Justice Ibadur Rehman Lodhi ruled on May 23 that the ban on construction was illegal and against basic human rights, and construction should be allowed according to the bylaws and rules and regulations.

The petitioners argued that while legal construction is banned, illegal construction, including violations of bylaws, has continued in connivance with TMA staff and influential government functionaries.

Masood Abbasi, the counsel for the TMA and the Punjab government, submitted an intra-court appeal against the single bench decision, on the plea of the UNDP report along with other arguments. A two member bench of the LHC – consisting of justices Atir Mehmood and Mohammad Ameer Bhatti – set aside the decision of the single bench, and continued the ban on construction.

During the last eight years, while the ban remained in place, hundreds of high-rise buildings were constructed in violation of the ban and the building bylaws. These bylaws were made by the government in 2004, before the ban was imposed.

In 2006, an eight-storey building collapsed on Hall Road, killing three people and injuring others. After media reports, the chief justice took suo moto notice and the then Murree town nazim Sardar Saleem Khan presented a report of 192 buildings that were either dangerous or constructed illegally. The Supreme Court ordered for the buildings to be demolished and for a report to be presented in court within three months.

However, these buildings have not been demolished, and a number of new ones have been constructed. Today, the construction of multi-storey buildings continues in various parts of Murree, such as Kuldanna, Barriyan Road, Mohrra Kashmiri Bazaar, Nair Goli and Danna.

In some parts of Murree, notable individuals, including ministers and advisers in the present government have constructed buildings while the ban on construction was in place.

Several notable individuals from the area have criticised the ban. Prof Aurangzeb Satti said it was cruel that higher-ups of the ruling party and other influential figures did not care for any ban due to the connivance of the TMA and other government functionaries but average citizens were not allowed to construct small homes.

Sardar Mansoor Khan, Hafiz Saeed Ahmed, Abdul Hameed Abbasi, Sardar Imran Khan Dhoondh and others appealed to the government to lift the ban on construction and adhere to the bylaws to prevent corruption and illegal construction, and take action against illegally constructed multi-storey buildings and demolish them to reduce the burden on the hill resort town.

Published in Dawn November 5th, 2016