New initiative: Move afoot to set up building control authority

The authority will be set up along the lines of its Sindhi counterpart.

LAHORE:

The Local Government Department is expected to request the chief minister this month to approve a summary paving the way for legislation to establish a building control authority in Punjab, The Express Tribune has learnt.

During a meeting on April 18, the Punjab chief minister had decided to relieve the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) of the responsibility of building control and removal of encroachments so that it could concentrate on development projects. The Local Government Department had been asked to prepare a draft law regarding the building control authority, said a source in the department who was not authorised to talk to the media. The authority would be established largely along the lines of the Sindh Building Control Authority and would have offices at the district, and town/tehsil levels, the source said. He added that a draft had been prepared and sent to the Law Department for vetting.

According to the draft, the body, to be known as the Punjab Building Control Authority (PBCA), would enforce building by-laws, approve building plans, regulate construction and check building violations. After its inception, these functions would be transferred to the PBCA from LDA, the City District Government Lahore, the Walled City of Lahore Authority and eventually from the various district administrations. The Local Government Department would subsequently send a summary to the chief minister to move the draft law to the Punjab Assembly for approval.

Local Government Secretary Jawad Raffique Malik told The Express Tribune that after the bill was approved by the provincial assembly, it would take at least three months to establish the authority. He said that the draft law was with the Law Department for vetting and “hopefully in a week or two our department will move a summary to the chief minister”.

The department secretary said that an independent police force was being proposed for the authority. “This will help address the enforcement issues currently being faced by the development authority.” Malik said that experts would be hired from the market and the existing officers with the requisite technical expertise could also be used.

He said that in the beginning the PBCA would adopt the prevalent rules and subsequently frame its own rules. Initially, the Lahore district and a district from southern Punjab would be proposed for the establishing the authority, Malik said, adding that the authority would gradually expand its operation to the remaining 34 districts of the province. However, he added that that would depend on the approval by the chief minister.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2014.