PESHAWAR, Nov 29: The Indian plate is drifting towards the Eurasian plate and may cause three or four more major earthquakes in the region over the next 50 years.

At the international level seismologists had informed people about earthquakes in advance, while in Pakistan geologists and seismologists, due to security reasons, were working under certain restrains.

University of Engineering and Technology Vice-Chancellor Syed Imtiaz Hussain Gilani was talking with Peshawar-based journalists about a two-day International Earthquake Rehabilitation conference “Seismology Structure and Codes” held in Islamabad. It was organized by the university in collaboration with the Higher Education Commission last week.

Mr Gilani said that the conference was attended by 200 national and international delegates.

The vice-chancellor said that on Oct 8 the Indian plate had moved four centimetres towards the Eurasian plate, which caused the major earthquake in Azad Kashmir and the NWFP.

He said that Pakistan should develop its own national building codes containing seismic design provisions utilizing the services of professionals, academia and government agencies. He suggested that at present foreign codes with appropriate amendments might be used as interim building codes.

When asked about the codes, he said that there were rules for building structures in fault lines areas. The national building code should have the force of law, adopted by parliament, he added.

Mr Gilani said that a neo-tectonic map of the country should be prepared with proper attributes.

Historical and recent seismicity maps should be prepared with reliable earthquake catalogues and fault plane solutions and the earthquake hazard assessment should be made at the national scale, he suggested.

About the Peshawar campus of the university, the vice-chancellor said that they had approved the establishment of the Department of Industrial Engineering with a cost of Rs186 million.

The project was part of the scheme to strengthen the Peshawar campus for which the estimated cost of Rs429 million had been approved.

The construction of an academic block at a cost of Rs95 million and construction of girls’ hostel at Peshawar and Abbottabad campuses with estimated cost of Rs39 million had also been approved.

He said that the Earthquake Engineering Centre had been upgraded to the National Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology Department.

Mr Gilani said that 25 candidates had been enrolled in Ph.D programmes in the current year, whereas 32 Ph.D candidates had been placed in Canadian and UK universities, and next year 23 more would be sent abroad.