ISLAMABAD, Sept 22: Ever since 250 people lost their lives in the garment factory fire in Karachi on September 11, authorities in the federal capital are under immense pressure to avoid a repeat of the incident in their jurisdiction.
The CDA has been forced to review its preparedness, and Dawn has learnt that in a brief prepared for the Interior Ministry, the civic authority has admitted that its fire engines cannot scale the three tallest towers of the city.
“The three towers are none other than Blue Area’s under-construction Centaurus Tower, Pakistan Telecom Employees Trust (PTET) tower (Telecom Tower) and the Islamabad Stock Exchange Tower,” a participant of the meeting, which was chaired last week by the interior minister and attended by officials of CDA and directorate of disaster management, told Dawn.
He added: “The interior minister had a two-page brief on the loopholes but the officials of the directorate skillfully dodged their shortcomings and never briefed him over their logistical constraints.”
According to an investigation carried out with the help of CDA building department officials, the Islamabad Stock Exchange Tower has 19 floors and is 76 metres tall; the under-construction Centaurus Tower has 25 floors and is 110 metres tall while the Telecom Tower has 24 floors and is 113 metres tall.
On the other hand, CDA has imported vehicles and equipment from Sweden and Japan, but most of them have fallen into disrepair. Of the four multi-million-dollar fire snorkels imported from Sweden, only one is functional and can scale a maximum height of 68 metres.
“God forbid if a fire was to break out at Telecom Tower or Islamabad Stock Exchange, the disaster management directorate would be in a major trouble as it has no ladders or snorkels to reach such heights,” said an official of the administration department at CDA.
Another participant of the meeting revealed that none of these points was debated on that day: “During the meeting the CDA officials stuck to their computer slides presentation and did not give any room to Interior Minister Rehman Malik to question CDA’s logistical resources and ill-preparedness to avert a large-scale fire.”
A few days back, in a conversation with this scribe CDA spokesman Masoodur Rehman had said in case of a major disaster, tenders could be called from the Rawalpindi fire department, but it remains unclear the heights they would be able to scale.
Despite repeated attempts and messages, Dawn was unable to get in touch with Interior Minister Rehman Malik, chairman CDA Farkhand Iqbal and CDA member administration Mustfain Kazmi.