ISLAMABAD, Jan 11 An official safety audit has found that almost all the important government buildings in the federal capital do not conform to fire safety regulations and put the lives of their inmates at risk.

What was worse was the nonchalant attitude of the government agencies towards the advisories issued to take remedial measures in such important buildings as the Aiwan-i-Sadar, the Prime Minister's Secretariat, the Pak Secretariat, the Parliament House and the Supreme Court, a member of the official team that conducted the disaster management audit recently told Dawn on Monday.

“Most of the buildings that we surveyed had no fire exits. We found their fire-fighting machinery and equipment obsolete and non-functional,” he said, adding that the departments looking after the buildings “did not even bother to respond to our advisories”.

His survey team came across instances where emergency exits had been blocked by concrete structures or no emergency exits at all. Aiwan-i-Sadar had no signs indicating escape routes since there were no fire exits there.

Most of the fire extinguishers installed in these buildings had passed their expiry date and the people working there had no idea what to do in case of an emergency. And smoke detectors in the canteens and cafeterias in all these buildings had been removed.

Things were no different in the Prime Minister's Secretariat from the Presidency.

The fire-fighting pipes in the building were found “damaged and the fire-fighting equipment there outdated”. The battery-operated equipment meant to detect smoke at the secretariat was non-functional and emergency signs were missing, the official said.

The Parliament House has no proper fire exits, perhaps because the fiery speeches made there do harm outside in the streets.

Most of the emergency exits in the building were found locked. “There is no evacuation plan at the Parliament House in case of any emergency,” the official said.

The Parliament House on fire is not a far fetched idea. A blaze gutted the building in the early 1990s. Fortunately, the parliament was not in session and no one was hurt but the interior of the building had to be redone.

If a fire breaks out in the building today, the massive security barriers at the entrance of the building would pose a hurdle to the fire-fighters.

In the vast Pak Secretariat, which houses federal ministries and attached departments, the fire exits have been converted into tea-rooms or offices.

The smoke detectors in the complex were not working and the water pipes meant to extinguish fire were broken.

The Supreme Court building was also without any proper fire/emergency exit. The fire alarm panel at the highest court of the country was out of order.

The Marriott Hotel, which was gutted by a terrorist attack in 2008, has secured itself by a high concrete wall. “But that would prevent fire-fighters direct access to the building in case of another emergency,” the official said.

“We just want these organisations to respond to our advisories which will help save lives and property in case of any fire or emergency,” he said.

“All they need to do is to put standard operating procedures in place,” he added.

Other buildings identified by the disaster management survey as being at risk included the official buildings of the provinces of Punjab, Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Federal Public Service Commission.