Johar Town demolition: CM’s Inspection Team to investigate botched operation

To recommend disciplinary action against 28 LDA officials.

LAHORE:

The chief minister has ordered another inquiry into a botched demolition operation in Johar Town in which four labourers were killed last month, to decide how much blame lies with each of the 28 Lahore Development Authority (LDA) officials on the hook over the incident, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, after reading the report of an initial inquiry, has instructed the Chief Minister’s Inspection Team (CMIT) to complete its investigation in seven days with the help of a civil engineer from the University of Engineering Technology (UET).

LDA Additional Director General (Housing) Irfan Ali Bhatti had been conducting an inquiry and had served show cause notices to the 28 officials including Chief Town Planner Chaudhry Muhammad Akram and 16 other officials of the Town Planning Wing, six officials of the Engineering Wing and five of the Enforcement Directorate under the Punjab Employees Efficiency, Discipline and Accountability (PEEDA) Act of 2006.

That inquiry is now over and the CMIT will recommend action against each official.

The first inquiry, conducted by an LDA committee, found that the demolition operation at the Board of Revenue Housing Society was “ill-planned, ill-executed and grossly mishandled [and] resulted in the ... loss of four precious human lives and injuries to twenty one persons.”

It lays the blame “for this calamitous incident” on “all the officers of the Town Planning Wing, Engineering Wing and Directorate of Enforcement who took part in the demolition operation directly or indirectly”.

The report says that all the senior officials deserted the demolition site between 9:15am and 10:00am, leaving the operation in the hands of inexperienced junior officers. It says that after 70 per cent of the building had been demolished, officials decided to use an excavator to knock down the rest while labourers were still on the roof hammering tiles. This resulted in the collapse of the structure and the death and injuries to the labourers on the roof.

The report says that the only official who should be absolved of blame is Tahir Shabbir Baloch, LDA assistant director (Buildings), because he had advised against using the excavator.

“This fact-finding probe cannot pin-point the extent/level of negligence/inefficiency in the case of each officer,” says the report, recommending that the government conduct an inquiry under PEEDA to assign blame and punishment. That inquiry will now be conducted by the CMIT.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9^th, 2011.