LIKE the burnt out twin towers of New York on 9/11, the rump of the Margalla towers in Islamabad has too tragic a story to tell of private sector profiteering and public life in Pakistan.

Thousands died as they were directly hit by the earthquake including falling roofs. But in the case of the 10 storied Margalla towers, the 33 people who died under its debris or over hundreds who were injured, were largely the victims of the atrocious construction.

Among the victims were three foreigners and bodies are still being dug out dead or alive. The epicentre of the quake, which claimed an inestimable number of lives was along the line of control in Kashmir, but the political epicentre was the Margalla towers— is a symbol of much of the follies in our midst. The collapse of the building in the manner it did was the outcome of shoddy construction, careless supervision by the CDA staff and its approval by the officials concerned.

The building was a symbol of our atrocious construction values, poor governance at key places and corruption all along the line. The Margalla towers with its varied weaknesses was located in Islamabad, but there are more such shoddily erected buildings in Islamabad. In the entire country, private greed runs riot and the public is helpless against it.

A case has now been filed against the Capital Development Authority, the builders of the fallen structure and its contractor. CDA staff has been charged with gross negligence and taking bribes for passing the building plan and approving the poor materials used. The owner/sponor of the building has been charged with attempt to murder. The CDA staff had approved a fake building plan.

But since no one has been specifically named in the CDA, it is not obvious whether any official will be punished as his crime warrants. Blockbuster accusation may be a good way of shielding the corrupt officials from public wrath for the moment in the face of such colossal human loss and injuries to far more.

An engineer who proposed to buy an apartment has in a letter to “Dawn” on October 12, said that he examined the structure of the building before moving to buy and found grossly exposed pillars and beams which put him off. When he raised the issue with the builders, they told him that the structure had been approved by the CDA, which was the supervising consultant of the project.

The CDA official also told him that the defects pointed out by him had already been cleared by the inspection engineers of the authority, but the shoddy materials used are evident to any television viewer of the collapsed structure of the building.

The CDA now says that it has not furnished the completion certificate to the builders. That is nothing new in the area of the commercial construction in Pakistan. What is far more relevant is that a number of persons had bought the apartments and were living in it including the three ill-fated foreigners.

Knowing that they were building a 10-storey complex with a great deal of hype in an earthquake prone area, the builders should have taken care to erect a proper structure and make it as earthquake proof as possible. Instead poor materials were used and the shoddy construction not only planned but also approved by the relevant officials who greatly profited by that. Of course, the contractors always try to save money by using substandard materials. But it is for the CDA officials to make sure that that the right materials were used and proper construction undertaken.

The fact is the pattern adopted for the design, construction and occupation of the Margalla towers is almost the same as used in the other cities of Pakistan.

It is not that necessary the owners should get completion certificates of the building before the sale deeds of the apartments are completed and the occupation of the building begins.

Hence it is essential that not only the officials of the CDA who approved the project step by step or stage by stage should be punished, but also other officials of development agencies elsewhere in the countries. The contractors and the owners who have been profiting through such shoddy construction also need to be punished.

For example, many high-rise buildings have come up in Karachi and been completed without proper approval by the building control authority. Usually, such buildings are approved at some stage, with the defects identified later. So not issuing a completion certificate is not as good alibi for letting crops of such buildings all over the city and the country.

In addition to the new buildings, which come up, while some of them collapse midway, cities like Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur etc have a large number of many old buildings to which new floors have been added. Such buildings are likely to collapse at any moment. The Hyderabad authorities have ordered a survey of such buildings.

In Karachi, while many such buildings have been identified, the occupants of the buildings resist their demolition.

Now that new town ships or city centres are coming up like the Creek City in Karachi, it is imperative that such construction should be made to conform to the standards and the construction of such projects should be subjected to periodic tests. And the government should keep a watch on the wealth of the officials of the Building Control Authority and others concerned with construction in the city.