Margalla Towers collapse: The accused rise as probe report gathers dust

Officials of CDA accused in case of Margalla Towers collapse getting promotions.

ISLAMABAD: Officials of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) accused in the case of the collapse of the Margalla Towers are not only still in service but are getting promotions.

Meanwhile the Cabinet division sits on the 1600-page report of the prime minister’s inquiry commission, which has purportedly fixed responsibility for the shocking death of 73 residents in the 2005 earthquake tragedy.

A case was registered against the tower’s owners, engineers and concerned officers of CDA who were probed by a five-member Prime Minister’s Inspection Commission for their alleged role in the approval of a faulty multi-storey residential complex which had been constructed and subsequently extended against all principles of safe engineering.

CDA did not take any action against its officials involved in the approval of the building and no departmental inquiry was conducted against them to fix the responsibility.

Only the PM’s commission questioned some 70 officials. Imtiaz Inayat Elahi, CDA’s chairperson, told The Express Tribune that he would be in a position to take action against those found guilty when the results of the inquiry are released.

He said that many officials who had been probed by the commission had themselves retired and others who had been promoted had risen in their careers according to rules.

Wishing not to be named, an official in the Engineering Directorate of CDA told The Express Tribune that “despite several reminders, the Cabinet Division is reluctant to release the 1600 pages report of prime minister’s inspection commission which contains reasons for the Margalla Towers’ collapse on October 8, 2005 earthquake and identifies the responsible officials.”

Malik Ghulam Murtaza, who was serving as Assistant Director, Buildings, in 2005, has been promoted thrice to the next higher grades and now occupies the position of Deputy Director General Buildings. Sheikh Kaleem was also among the accused but he is still serving in the Authority as Director Buildings, according to CDA sources.

Malik Ghulam Murtaza however told The Express Tribune that he had been cleared by the Shalimar police. He said that his promotions were all on merit.

Another CDA official gave another account to The Express Tribune holding that Malik Murtaza and Sheikh Kaleem had actually been dismissed from the service along with Deputy Director Tariq Faqeer and the then building inspector, Noor Muhammad.

However they were later reinstated on the directives of the then Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao.

Naeem Durani, Director-General Works, and Sohail Ursani, Director Water and Sanitation, were also among the accused persons but they were allowed to continue in their official duties. Tahir Banoori, then CDA’s architect, was later transferred to Comsats on deputation.

The Margalla Towers were designed by Islamabad-based architect Afzal Qureshi, while the structural design and engineering was done by engineer Dr Hafeez Shaikh. These two officials were recently arrested in Spain through Interpol but so far the concerned authorities have not completed the documentation for their repatriation, sources said.

The families of the victims have accused the past and present governments for suppressing the Margalla Towers’ collapse inquiry report and keeping it under wraps. Iftikhar Muhammad, one of the victims, claimed the report had held top CDA bureaucrats responsible for the tragedy.

At a recent meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Division, CDA Chairman Imtiaz Inayat Elahi said that of all the accused officials the Deputy Director General Building was the only one still in service.

Adviser to the Prime Minister Nawabzada Ghaznafar Gill observed that no official who was under inquiry of some kind could be promoted. The committee also asked for producing the report of the PM’s inspection commission.

Earlier the inspection commission’s former chairperson, Farooq Ahmed, had informed the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in a meeting that he was under pressure from some ‘influential persons’ to change the report’s contents.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 20^th, 2010.