LAHORE, July 13: A new post of executive district officer (building control) has been created in the five city district governments in Punjab to enable them to centrally enforce the new model building bylaws in their respective towns.

A separate set of model bylaws would be made for the rest of the district governments for enforcement by their tehsil administrations.

The chief minister had approved the new bylaws on July 11 exclusively for the five big cities to address their endemic problem of construction, especially high-rise buildings, without adopting proper safety and other required measures. The Supreme Court, too, has been taking a strict notice of the activity especially in Lahore.

Official sources informed Dawn on Friday that the model bylaws had been made exclusively for the five city governments because mainly they confronted the problem of illegal high-rises. Lahore and Rawalpindi districts and latter’s tehsil Murree were the worst affected areas.

They said under the Local Government Ordinance, building control was the responsibility of the tehsil administrations. But the law also authorised the city district governments to use this authority in their respective towns. Therefore, the new set of model bylaws would be adopted by the CDGs.

These laws, they said, would be enforced through the new post of the EDO (building control) which had been approved. Postings would soon be made after their formal notification, they added.

The officials said the EDO would wholly regulate building activity in the towns. The existing building control establishment of the city district governments’ development authorities would also be merged into the EDO’s office for centralisation of the system.

The fresh rules had introduced new punishments for indulging in any unlawful activity with regard to the construction of buildings, eliminating the obsolete legal system of imposing a fine on a violator without correcting the illegal construction (compoundable offence).

Under the new bylaws, illegal construction had been made a non-compoundable offence that authorised the city district governments to either seal the illegal construction or simply demolish it.

Officials said the need to introduce these bylaws had arisen because the laws in vogue had become redundant and were unable to control the illegal high-rises.

The new rules also provided for proper building control in seismic zones (Rawalpindi) where the new buildings would have to be designed and constructed with a foolproof earthquake resistance system.

“Since the other district governments do not have the problem of high-rise buildings at the moment, they are being given a separate set of bylaws. Still, they will be empowered to tackle the menace if they face it in future,” the officials said.