LAHORE, Aug 24: Most of the buildings in Shahalam Market, the busiest wholesale commercial center in the city, have been constructed illegally, thanks to the greed and negligence of traders and apathy of the civic agancies.

Top three storeys of the building that collapsed on Thursday were also constructed illegally, without the approval from the Lahore Development Authority.

There are reports that the owner, an influential trader of the area, had over the years added more floors to the original five-storey structure in violation of the building byelaws.

“Had he been penalised then, this tragic incident might have been avoided,” said Mudasar, a nearby trader. He said that a murder case should be registered against the owner of the building and the officials concerned who allowed expansion.

DCO Muhammad Ijaz also admited that a number of buildings had been constructed illegally.

Traders said scores of owners had not obtained any official approval for adding basements or upper storeys to their old and fragile buildings.

“What is the approved height of a building. Whether its foundations are strong enough to withstand tons of additional load. Or digging for constructing a basement under a multi-storey structure is feasible is none of their (owners) concern,” said an enraged trader from a neighbouring plaza.

“Since a small addition to the existing building can fetch millions of rupees, therefore, there is no problem for greedy owners to grease the palms of corrupt LDA surveyors, “ says a city district government officer who requested not to be named.

In the past a former chief minister had ordered demolition of some illegal plazas in Shahalam Market but they were rebuilt after the change of the government.

The CDGL last year had also initiated action against illegal buildings there but the traders’ mafia forced District Nazim Aamer Mahmood to call it off. Even a fatal building collapse in the same area during the process of digging for basement also failed to move the authorities.

The CDGL had then prepared a list of illegal buildings which showed that 300 plazas had been constructed without approval.

It is also learnt that the CDGL has not a single building engineer to ascertain the quality of the building material.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi expressed his grief over the loss of life and property. He announced Rs 100,000 financial aid for the heirs of the dead and Rs50,000 for the injured.

MQM chief Altaf Hussain also expressed his sympathies with the bereaved families. —Zulqernain Tahir