MULTAN: The city assistant commissioner on Saturday suspended a building inspector from service and initiated an inquiry into a wall collapse incident at a marriage hall claiming lives of two persons and causing injuries to seven others after a windstorm lashed the city on Friday.

According to Punjab Land Use Rules, a marriage hall could only be established on a plot having a minimum size of four kanals, but the one where the accident occurred — Shah Rukn-i-Alam Marriage Hall, Hazoori Bagh — was constructed on a one-kanal piece of land.

After the incident, official scrutiny revealed that the map of the hall, that had been functional for several years, was not approved.

Sources said although teams in various towns had been formed for the implementation of Punjab Marriage Act on chief minister’s orders to check timings of wedding functions and enforce one-dish bar, but no action was ever taken against such illegally established marriage halls.

They said such halls were good source of illegal earning for the town officials. About a year back, a citizen had filed an application to the then town administrator, Malik Attaul Haq, pointing out the hall was established illegally, but the matter was hushed up, they added.

The sources said the matter had also been brought into the notice of the present administrator, but to no avail.

They said that the owner of hall had submitted an application for the approval of a commercial center instead of the marriage hall.

They said that recently the wedding ceremony of a town officer’s son was held for which all owners of the local marriage halls were asked to “cooperate”.

They said the action against the building inspector and the launch of a probe into the wall collapse was a result of the displeasure expressed by District Coordination Officer Nadir Chatha over the incident.

District government spokesperson Wasim Yousaf said AC Farooq Dogar, who is also holding the charge of the administrator of Shah Rukn-i-Alam Town took notice of the incident and suspended the building inspector concerned from service.

He said an inquiry had also been initiated into the illegal functioning of marriage hall.

He said the owner had actually got approval for construction of a godown on the site but had been running the illegally-built hall there.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2016