ISLAMABAD: Fire that broke out in Centaurus Mall should be a wake-up call for the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) as majority of high-rise buildings are operating without obtaining completion certificates and a certified fire and safety system.

Sources in CDA said except a few, all high-rise buildings, including Centaurus Mall, are operating without completion certificates and a certified fire and safety system.

The completion certificate is known as an occupancy certificate and such documents deal with fire and safety systems, structural stability and so on. However, the owners of these buildings started operating businesses in the said buildings without getting occupancy certificates.

On the other hand, CDA’s building control section, which issues occupancy certificates and MCI’s emergency and disaster management directorate, which issues fire and safety certificates, in majority of the cases restricted themselves to issuing notices only.

“I cannot say whether all these buildings have automatic fire and safety systems. Maybe they have state-of-the-art systems in place, but it is true that these buildings are operating without completion certificates,” a CDA director said.

When asked about reasons for not getting completion certificates, the officer said building owners, after getting approval of layout plans, started construction and in many cases violated the layout plan which is why they avoided contact with CDA for completion certificates.

Meanwhile, an MCI officer said the emergency and disaster management directorate had conducted audit of a large number of buildings in Islamabad and so far, it has issued no-objection certificates (NOCs) only to 26 buildings mostly located in various markets of Islamabad.

Interestingly, the CDA and MCI only focus on urban areas and on those plots, which were allotted by the CDA while rural areas such as Bhara Kahu, Tramri, Lehtrar Road, Khanna Pul and Tarnol which are dotted with commercial buildings are operating without even approval of the layout plan.

Like commercial buildings, residential apartments are also being operated without completion certificates.

CDA officials said the civic agency had auctioned around 30 plots in urban areas where apartment buildings were built and their owners occupied them in alleged connivance with some officials without obtaining the certificates.

The CDA had auctioned plots in various sectors that include 11 in F-11, five in G-11, four in F-10 and one in G-8. Whereas, there are also a large number of apartment buildings in rural areas, where the CDA has been paying little attention.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2022