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ISLAMABAD “I recall the collapse whenever I see through the window deserted Margalla Towers,” says Mrs Ali, who lives in F-10/3, in a letter to Imtiaz Anayat Elahi, chairman Capital Development Authority (CDA).
One of the eyewitnesses of Margalla Towers tragedy, the first high rise apartment building in Islamabad, in which its one-and-a-half residential blocks carrying 43 apartments collapsed, killing 72 people, she asked the CDA chief to immediately demolish the 'horrible' structure.
Otherwise, she warns, it would continue to be a stigma on CDA performance, a source in the CDA told Dawn on Thursday. “The building is source of terror, pain, and distress for the families who lost their loved ones in the quake,” the letter said.
Ironically the CDA has not been able to decide the fate of ten-storey building, still standing in the heart of the city on the fifth anniversary of the catastrophe that claimed over 73,000 lives, damaged 600,000 homes from Balakot to Muzaffarabad.
Unfortunately the CDA top officials, including its chairman, are passing the letter to each other, instead of taking action despite the fact that it is not only the demand of aged woman but voice of every sane person in the capital.
“I received the letter from the chairman and referred it to Member Finance Saeeduz Zaman with a strong recommendation that the structure of Margalla Towers should be demolished forthwith,” said CDA Member Engineering Abdul Jabbar Milano.
When contacted, Iftikhar Chaudhry, coordinator of Margalla Towers Residents Action Committee (MTRAC), claimed that a firm had offered the CDA to demolish the building without any charges but demanded share in the sale of the building's rubble. “But the CDA chairman rejected the offer and decided to award a contract to a firm that would get money for demolition and the entire debris,” he said.
The residents of Margalla, who have taken Rs1.75 billion as compensation against their apartments from the CDA last year, have also filed a plea before the Supreme Court Chief Justice, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, demanding reversal of all decisions take by Abdul Hameed Dogar, former chief justice, in the Margalla Towers case.
In their pray the affected families of Margalla Towers have demanded immediate demolishing of the building and reopening compensation case of Ramzan Khokhar, the owner of the building who was accused for its poor and faulty construction, but became main beneficiary when former CJ Dogar allowed him to get compensation against his five flats in the building.
It has been learnt that Mr Khokhar received Rs43.5 million in compensation of his five apartments when all other residents of the building, who had survived the quake, got compensation of Rs1.75 billion under the SC orders.The committee of affected families also asked the government to make public the inquiry report of the towers collapse, prepared by Maj Gen (retd) Farooq Ahmed as chairman Prime Minister's Inspection Commission four years ago. Gen Farooq once said that some 'influential' people had managed to block the report.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, before his suspension after emergency imposed by former president Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf in November 2007, had ordered that Mr Khokhar should not be given any compensation unless criminal proceedings started against him were ended and he was declared innocent in the case.
Meanwhile, the CDA put the plots/structure of Margalla Towers on auction, giving it to APCO, a construction company, for Rs1.35 billion. But after coming under immense pressure from media, the CDA cancelled the bid as it had already paid Rs1.75 billion to owners of 43 apartments in the building.
