—Despite repeated ‘reminders’ by Directorate of Municipal Administration, the CDA high-ups remain indifferent
ISLAMABAD: The foremost civic agency of Islamabad, the Capital Development Authority, is ill-prepared to effectively respond to any natural or manmade disaster. The proof of this assertion lies in the fact that all the fire extinguishers placed in the multiple directorates of its head office in G-7 have expired in May 2017.
Despite repeated warnings from the Emergency and Disaster Management (E&DM), Fire Prevention, Protection Advisory Unit of Municipal Corporation Islamabad (MCI), the CDA high-ups were yet to take concrete steps to ensure the safety and security of its personnel and property.
In a written memo, a copy of which is available with Pakistan Today, the Emergency and Disaster Management unit asked the various directorates of CDA, including Land and Estate, Building Control Section and others, to obtain no-objection certificates (NOCs) during property transfers, change of ownership, and sale/purchase for residential, educational, institutional, assembly, business, mercantile, industrial storage and hazardous buildings.
“Your support and assistance in the property safety interest are once again solicited, with a religious compulsion to forward all cases during property transfers and change of ownership of all properties, thus enabling this office to enforce the protection and life safety aspects engaging owners,” the memo reads.
It was interesting to note in the memo that the E&DM had inspected “more than 2,200 occupancies”, yet it had failed to take notice of ill-preparedness and aloofness of many directorates of CDA and had failed to seek compliance of its order in its own domain.
The expired fire extinguishers were a visible example of the utter lack of coordination and communication between various civic agencies of the federal capital.
The officials at the Directorate of Municipal Administration (DMA) and CDA passed the buck when contacted for their version in this connection.
The bifurcation of powers between CDA and the newly established MCI were still in the process of consolidation. It is pertinent to mention here that both these organisations till recently were headed by Islamabad Mayor Sheikh Anser Aziz who was given an additional charge of CDA chairman.