The day Karachi Northern Bypass Bridge collapsed only three weeks after its inauguration in an atmosphere of pomp and pride by President General Pervez Musharraf turned out to be a day of mourning for the people whose relatives were killed in the mishap.
A wave of shock and terror ran through the spine of thousands of Lahoris, Pindiites and citizens of Islamabad, who started questioning one another how and why "this tragedy" had befallen the innocent masses of the former capital of Pakistan. Most of them recollected the same evening how they got their houses built, which were in their original shape to that day and are still safe and sound.
Along side expressing grief and sympathy with victims of September 01 bridge fall, most dwellers of the Capital Territory of Islamabad recollected the following day how more than 25 years ago their houses were constructed. Many of them narrated to one another the technical and financial difficulties they came across in raising their houses.
The kind and substance of problems being the same then and not yet over to date, one feels it appropriate to blend honestly all informative stories into one, which will provide a lead to pinpoint the villain of the whole story of the Karachi Northern Bypass Bridge collapse played up by some vested interests who, in a vain attempt to damage the fair name of the National Logistics Cell, manoeuvred to misguide a section of media..
It is a matter of public knowledge that a homeless government servant, a school or college teacher and a media person who was fortunate to acquire a residential plot, remained at the mercy of a development authority-- for instance the Capital Development Authority in Islamabad and Lahore Development Authority (LDA) in the capital of the Punjab.
Any person who was allotted a plot of land could not build his house on the plot as he desired, he was bound to select a map out of a limited number of designs already sketched and finalised by the directorate of architecture of the authority concerned. Here in the federal capital, as elsewhere in the country, a lessee had no choice but to go by the design handed to him by the authority concerned on payment of a fair amount.
He, however, had a facility of picking out a well-reputed constructor from a list of contractors. Nevertheless, he had a right to engage for his house building project any contractor on solo-source basis-- merit of selection being expertise, manpower and resourcefulness to deal with any creepy element or encroacher and, of course, experience.
It has to be borne in mind that all allottees were not as well-to-do and as rich as big landlords and influential capitalists. A number of them borrowed money from the House-Building Finance Corporation under specific rules and conditions before hiring services of contractors for construction of their houses.
So, an allottee of plot of big or small size was at the mercy of the development authority in context with the design thrust upon him for compliance at every step of the house construction and that of the finance corporation in regard to the use of loan. The latter institution disbursed the loan by instalment and its staff visited the site to see for themselves whether or not the money was being spent as per the rules for the specific purpose.
Similarly, the development authority overseer personally visited place of construction to inspect the quantity and ratio-wise quality of material such as steel, cement and sand and determine at the same time that the contractor did not violate the design in any way.
The development authority personnel concerned would never issue a clean chit for a go-ahead unless and until he was satisfied with the performance of the construction contractor engaged by the plot lessee.
Finally, a completion certificate was issued by the development authority when the house construction had been checked and found satisfactory in all respects: adherence by the building contractor to design specifications right from plinth level to last storey-- plans for front and rear elevation, ground and first floors and girders, etc.
Observance of principles and rules of construction is in practice across the country, and all other related affairs are also in vogue. Any educated conscious person, or even a matriculate experienced mason, would discover, without any complexity, the real cause of the Karachi bridge collapse if an effort is made in the light of the house-building facts stated above.
For example, the development authority may be taken for Engineering Consultants International Limited (ECIL), the House Building Finance Corporation for National Highway Authority (NHA) and the construction contractor of the plot lessee for National Logistics Cell.
There seems nothing objectionable in assignment of the Karachi Northern Bypass scheme to NLC who is known for possession of experience of Sibbi-Rakhni Road Project financed by Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in1983 and construction of Kharian-Rawalpindi Additional Carriageway of about 125 kilometers, including six major bridges in 1990s.
That feat is said to have inspired the governments for construction of motorways in Pakistan. Hence, there is no wisdom in blaming the NLC. The fault, in fact, lies with the engineering consultants. Now who will catch the culprit by neck? That is the question.