Capital administration fails severe test

Saturday morning's massive earthquake that struck the northern regions of the country including Islamabad put the Capital's administration to a severe test in meeting the calamitous situation the temblor created, and sadly enough the administration failed.
At the Margalla Tower site, where a whole block of flats collapsed, entombing some 60 residents, not one soul from the administration reached for at least one hour. Only a couple of traffic constables were there who were directing the rush of vehicles that were reaching there after hearing the report of collapse on television.
A large number of people, some related to the residents of the doomed tower and other lay spectators, watched the debris of ten-storey building helplessly while a helicopter flew over it. Then one saw an ambulance finding its way to the site through a thick labyrinth of jammed traffic.
This was the strongest earthquake to have struck the Capital during its brief lifetime of a little less than half a century. That a mammoth concrete structure collapsed and scores of other multi-storey structures, particularly along the Capital's main avenue, Blue Area, developed cracks, sent down the spines of its residents the chilling message that building laws had been ignored.
According to a local TV channel report, the portion of Margalla Tower that collapsed was not part of the original structure as it was added later on when the CDA allowed additional construction.
Standing on the north-east corner of Sector F-10, opposite the Fatima Jinnah Park, the Margalla Tower was the first high-rise residential building in Islamabad. It was built in early 1980s and was soon occupied, mostly as owners, by white-collar professionals, retired bureaucrats or overseas returnees.
It was not the first time that the local administration failed to effectively tackle the aftermath of a major accident in the capital. Some years back, when the 13-storey Shaheed-i-Millat Secretariat, had caught fire, the fire-fighters could not put out the fire as it did not have a ladder to reach higher than the third floor.
Since people in this part of the country prefer to live in open spaces, high-rise structures were not very popular in the initial stages of the Capital's development. But, of late, apartment living has gained popularity, boosting the business of apartment buildings construction.
The collapse of Margalla Tower is bound to dampen demand for apartments.