By Atif Khan
Islamabad: The Centaurus Mall and One Constitution Avenue, the most expensive luxury buildings are prone to fire as the departments lack the equipment and expertise to respond to any emergency in high-rises.
If a fire breaks up in Centaurus or Constitution-1 or any building taller than 200 feet, we have no means to extinguish it, an official said. He said the recent fire in Centaurus was overcome only after Pakistan Army, Navy and Aviation joined the operation. "It was a small fire that started in the food court, during lunchtime, but it took us hours to extinguish it, if it had been night, the damage could have been huge, he said.
The Centaurus is a mixed-use tower at the prime location of Jinnah avenue. Centaurus Corporate Tower, and two residential towers, 110 meters or 361 feet high each, were built in 2012. It consists of a shopping mall and corporate and residential apartments.
The food court, where the fire erupted last week, is located on the fourth floor and houses many national and international brand food chains. The fire from the food court later spread to other floors. According to insiders, it took more than four hours to completely extinguish the flames. The fire damaged the structure of the building.
Islamabad's Emergency and Disaster Management Directorate has 5 Bronto Snorkels, two 29 meters, and two 68 meters tall. These skylights could only reach up to more than 100 feet. In case of any fire or any major, we call the Rawalpindi and other neighboring fire departments, an official said.
During the background interviews, it was revealed that Islamabad's Emergency & Disaster Management Directorate is facing an acute shortage of funds. It is under staff and proper maintenance of vehicles and equipment is a challenge.
Not only skylifts but the other resources have a limited capacity to handle any massive fire.
Islamabad fire department has 08 Fire Mitsubishi fire tenders with a 12,000-litre capacity each, 10 Hino Fire Tenders, with 10000-litre water and 500 foam capacity, each. The department has 9 Hino fire tenders with a 7200-litre capacity each. It has 7 - foamless- mini fire tenders, between 1000-4000 litre water capacity.
The CDA building department staff confided that scribe that Centaurus and Constitution -1 projects are illegal as per Islamabad's Master and building plan. "There is no provision for buildings above 200 feet", he said.
He said both towers belong to influential people, and they managed to get approvals, ensuring deployment of in-house fire and disaster control mechanisms, but they failed.
in 2008, Rawalpindi's biggest shopping market Ghakkar Plaza was turned into ashes when a fire broke out at 3 am, killing many and injuring dozens. The plaza was built in the 1980s, reportedly, in violation of building codes by former Pakistan People`s Party federal state minister Raja Shahid Zafar.
Read More - Five dead, 18 missing, in Rawalpindi mall collapse
The capital administration has formed a seven-member committee to probe the fire incident at Centaurus Mall in addition to the registration of a case against unknown individuals for setting the skyscraper on fire.
The committee's official report has yet to come but reportedly, the committee has surrendered to powerful owners. Centaurus is owned by Sardar Tanvir IlyasKhan, Prime Minister AJK, a Kashmiri politician belonging to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.
CDA is so much helpless in front of powerful owners, that the Centaurus Mall administration is operating their Monal Restaurant, without any approval, it was learnt. CDA officials told the scribe that the Mall staff never cooperated with the department. "Numerous notices have been served on the mall administration from 2017 to 2021 for unsatisfactory response and poor management, even a senior special magistrate issued a notice to the management on June 15, 2017", but nothing happened, an official said.
Islamabad Deputy Commissioner denied that the Capital Administration was under any influence.
"The fact-finding committee report has yet to come, which will determine the cause of the fire and how the mall management responded to it. Were the mall staff trained and equipped, we will know only after the report", said Irfan Nawaz Memon.
Deputy Commissioner admitted that Islamabad bylaws allow buildings up to 200 feet only. "We have the capacity to fight fire in buildings up to 200 feet, how buildings taller than 20 feet were built in Islamabad, I cannot comment on it", he said, adding, the tallest lift to reach skyrise is 68 meters, which is sufficient to extinguish the fire in any 200 feet tall building.
Centaurus is not the only tall building in Islamabad. There are many 20-plus story towers under construction. Telecom Tower, a 24-floor building is 113 meters or 371 feet high. The top elite luxury building of the capital, "One Constitution" is 105.5 meters or 346 ft tall. It costs a fortune to buy a residential or commercial unit in these luxury buildings.
A three-bedroom Apartment in Centaurus mall costs around Rs 08 Crore. A 2-bedroom apartment in the under construction, Constitution Tower is priced at around 10 crores.
The top politicians and bureaucrats, including PTI chief, Imran Khan ganged up when CDA cancelled the 99-year lease of the land to the BNP, in 2017, for violating the building bylaws and the lease agreement.
The influential who own apartments in "Constitution One", includes Nasirul Mulk, Salman Bashir, Ahmed Mukhtar, Feryal Ali Gauhar, Jahangir Khan, Haris Khan Toru, Rashid Khan, Shazia Hafeez Shaikh, Muhammad Hashim Khan, Dr Asad Zia, Shiekh Amir Waheed, Shahzad Waseem, Muhammad Asif Sandila, Mehboobul Haque, Naseem Zehra Ikhlaq, Khawaja Muhammad Asad and Kashmala Tariq.
Supreme Court in 2019, restored the lease of the multi-story building, ordering the owner of the tower to pay Rs17.5 billion to the government against its lease in instalments over eight years. Like the Centaurus, Constitution Tower is also a no-go area for CDA officials.
Centaurus is still sealed, after the fire incident. Deputy Commissioner insists that the building will be open only after the damage assessment report but he has no clue who will pay for the damages.
No one from Centaurus Mall management was available to comment about the compensation to the shopkeepers and businesses damaged due to the fire and how they will avert any future incident. The CDA spokesperson denied that both plazas were constructed in violation of CDA bylaws.
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