Margalla Towers’ collapse: Report kept from public eye since 2005

Commission says the report will be submitted on PM’s request.

ISLAMABAD:

The Prime Minister’s Inspection Commission’s report on the collapse of the Margalla Towers has been kept from the public since 2005, The Express Tribune has learnt.

“The report has not been submitted because the commission has not received instructions to do so,” PM Inspection Commission’s Chairperson Amjad Noon informed the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat and Inter Provincial Coordination during a background meeting held here a few days ago.

Noon said that the report had been prepared in 2005, during the tenure of the former PM Shaukat Aziz. He said the inquiry committee will submit the report upon request of Prime Minister (PM) Yousuf Raza Gilani.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Chairman Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat and Inter Provincial Coordination, Senator Shahid Hassan Bugti, said that Secretary Cabinet Nargis Sethi did not attend the past three committee meetings, which were to discuss the delay of the inspection commission’s report on collapse of the Margalla Towers. He said that the issue will now be taken up by the main committee. They will probe the matter to determine why the report has not been submitted to the PM and why the Cabinet Secretary failed to attend the committee meetings. “It is the responsibility of the committee to ensure justice to families of the 73 victims who died in the tragic incident,” he added.

Sources inside the Capital Development Authority (CDA) alleged that the government had decided no to make the report public “to save the skin of some influential officials”. They said that CDA was barred from conducting a departmental inquiry into the matter under the pretext that the PM’s inspection commission will be responsible for investigating the matter. Source added that after repeated requests, the inspection commission told CDA officials not to send it reminders or requests regarding the status of the report.

Senator Bugti said that during a question hour in the senate, Interior Minister Rehman Malik and Babar Awan refused to give their stance on the issue. While In-charge Cabinet Division said that officials linked to the Margalla Towers’ collapse cannot be tried as the inquiry commission’s report has not yet been received.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 4^th,  2011.