Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad Accuses CDA Of Issuing Illegal NOCs

Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad Accuses CDA Of Issuing Illegal NOCs
The Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad’s Emergency and Disaster Management (E&DM) Directorate has accused the Capital Development Authority (CDA) of violating the Islamabad Fire Prevention and Life Safety Regulations 2010 while issuing illegal no-objection certificate (NOCs) to owners both at the time of approval of building plan and completion tenure.

A letter issued by E&DM, a copy of which is available NayaDaur Media, reads, “It has been over and over again appraised to your esteemed office vide series of letters, reminders, warning, cautions and advisory notices reminding you of sanctity of the Islamabad Fire Prevention and Life Safety Regulations 2010, which has been uncared, ill-treated and completely disregarded in sheer violations of the Section (4), Sub-section (3) of the Regulations.”

“The matter has turned further into debacle itself, when locally operating business-oriented groups have been entertained for their prices safety NOCs, to the building owners on the behest of BCS-I & II line officers over and above, of an officially designated and recognised authority, Emergency and Disaster Management Directorate, enjoys full powers to such life safety NOCs under prevailing regulations 2010,” it added.




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The letter said the state of affairs prevailing at BCS-I&II precisely concerning deliberate by-passing the mandate of E&DM Directorate of the MCI was nonetheless extremely objectionable and in sheer violation of the 2010 regulations.

It’s pertinent to mention that the city managers issued NOCs in violation of the regulations, including the largest buildings in commercial blue-area, with the support of private companies working on building safety.

The Directorate further mentioned in its letter that sub-standard apparatus being shown and installed and being rated fit by the market vendors duly considered by the Building Control Section of the CDA is terribly unlawful.



It clarified regarding the Islamabad regulations that nonetheless, the Directorate of One-Window Operations, Directorate of State Management-I and Directorate of State Management–II despite strict instructions of the then Member Estate, CDA in year 2012, was not obtaining safety NOCs from the office at the time of property transfer, causing immense nuisance and delays towards safety-audits of ICT.

When contacted, Director (Building Control) Faisal Naeem responded that the fire safety provisions 2016, being part of Building Code of Pakistan and notified by the GOP, were mandatory for all relevant departments. He added the same had been adopted by CDA since 2017 though the E&DM Directorate was not part of the CDA as they had their own functions which they could perform as no one had asked them to stop inspections of buildings.
Correspondent Islamabad

The author is a reporter based in Islamabad.