Whodunnit?: Blame game over IIUI flood damage continues

Committee set up to look into issue.

ISLAMABAD:

The president of International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) this week announced the formation of a committee to investigate the damage inflicted in the varsity by the recent spells of heavy rains.

According to Finance Division estimates, the university has incurred over Rs150 million in property and equipment losses due to the damage done to three blocks ---Maryam Block, Administration Block and Provost Office.

IIUI Planning Director Tahir Khan is allegedly distributing the documents, which claim that the university’s higher-ups were informed about the issue earlier this year, but to no avail.

“Had our requests to construct a drain before the monsoon rains been heeded in time, the present situation would have been avoided,” Khan said in a letter.

The blocks were flooded as a result of rains during the Eid holidays. The result was damage to costly equipment, laboratories and important records.

In the letter, Khan attached a string of correspondence between his office, President Prof Dr Ahmad Yousif Al-Draiweesh and Vice-President Sahibzada Sajidur Rehman.

According to an official privy to the university’s planning and development initiatives, the untimely construction of a storm drain adjacent to a girls’ hostel was one of the major causes of the flooding.

On April 5, IIUI Finance Director Khurshid Alam had forwarded a note to Rehman explaining that funds for the drain were unavailable due to financial constraints.

“We can initiate the project during the next fiscal year,” Rehman had noted at the time, after which Alam earmarked July as the month for completion.

According to documents available with The Express Tribune, a Rs4million project was approved on June 7. On June 10, the contractor was informed that the work should be completed in 90 days.

In the meantime, the rain did what varsity officials had been trying to prevent.

The committee that has been constituted to investigate the authority responsible for the calamity comprises Higher Education Commission Planning Director-General, the IIUI women campus director and Rehman’s secretary.

IIUI acting rector Masoom Yasinzai said the culprits would be brought to book. “Maryam Block in particular has accumulated a lot of water from surrounding areas. The engineers that were hired to construct the block in the basement clearly did not design with care,” he said.

He said there was no need for a basement when the varsity had hundreds of acres of land available.

Yasinzai promised a thorough investigation into the matter.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 29^th, 2013.