GUJRAT: The owners of a shopping mall that was gutted around two months ago, have illegally started the reconstruction of the building without waiting for the completion of the report by Lahore’s Building Research Station, says the district administration.

“The local authorities had requested the agency to determine whether the existing building could be used or not,” said a spokesman for the district administration.

The spokesman said in a statement issued here that the charge of subjecting the owners of the mall to any kind of political victimisation was baseless and, in fact, it was the management of the building that had put the lives of people and residential buildings surrounding the plaza to extreme danger by not following the rules.

He said the Gujrat Municipal Corporation had lodged a case against the management of the shopping mall for committing gross irregularities.

The spokesman said the shops and goods stored there had been reduced to ashes in the fire that erupted in the plaza on Oct 16 and the deputy commissioner constituted an inquiry committee that also pointed out shortcomings in the fire-fighting mechanism.

On the other hand, Zeeshan Zaib, the owner of the shopping mall, said they had not launched reconstruction or renovation activity at the site and only the building had been cleaned. He said his father (PML-N leader Aurangzaib Butt) was not the owner of the building but the administration and police had registered cases against him.

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2019