RAWALPINDI: Despite the threat of aftershocks that loomed over the garrison city following Monday`s earthquake, local administration did not initiate a survey to assess the city`s dilapidated buildings, putting residents` lives at risk.

On Tuesday a three-storey building on Jamia Masjid Road near the Qadeemi Imambargah could not survive the aftershocks and caved in.

In another incident, the roof of two rooms of an old house in Mohallah Niariyan on Jamia Masjid Road also caved in following aftershocks at 4am on Tuesday.

Two individuals received minor injuries but the area`s residents remained safe.

Although the buildings were vacant, the incident exposed the City District Government Rawalpindi (CDGR), Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) and Rawal Town Municipal Administration`s (RTMA) performance in the face of a natural disaster.

According to standard operating procedures following an earthquake or flood in the city, the civic bodies should initiate a survey led by the engineering branch and building department to assess buildings.

However, the CDGR and RDA had no data on high-rise buildings,even though Murree Road, Saidpur Road and the main GT Road come under their administrative control.

RTMA, meanwhile, presented data for 252 dilapidated buildings on the left side of Murree Road, and in Commercial Market, Raja Bazaar and 46 union councils (UC) of the city that was prepared 10 years ago, after the 2005 earthquake.

A senior CDGR official told Dawn that civic bodies did not conduct any survey of the city`s buildings after the 2005 earthquake.

`Under the provincial government`s notification, CD GR, Res cue 1122, Civil Defence department and tehsil municipal administrations would visit all buildings especially highrises to assess any damage after an earthquake, flood or other natural disaster, the official said, but added that no committee had been formed toward this end even a day after Monday`s earthquake.

He said that there were an estimated 700 highrise buildings in Rawalpindi and its cantonment areas.

According to building codes, buildings over 38 feet are considered highrises, and all building rules should be observed on these structures, including fire safety measures, evacuation pathways and lightning conductors. The infrastructure should also be earthquake-proof.

He said most dilapidated buildings in downtown areas were located in narrow streets and this could prove dangerous for the residents if the civic body did not take immediate action.

District Coordination Officer (DCO) Sajid Zafar Dall told Dawn that the CDGR formed a teamunder the revenue department to assess the damage after the earthquake and the tehsil municipal administration had been directed to reassess dilapidated buildings.

When contacted, Rawal Town administrator Imran Qureshi said the RTMA had already declared over 250 buildings `dangerous`in the Rawal Town area and had served notices on their owners, asking them to vacate the buildings.

He said the civic body could make residents aware of the dangers but it was the provincial government`s responsibility to provide alternative housing if they demanded it.

When contacted, former MNA Malik Shakil Awan said that while the government can help people when a natural disaster strikes, to continue living in dilapidated buildings was their own choice.

He said the issue would soon be taken up by the party to find a way to assist deserving people in repairing their dilapidated structures.

However, people residing in suchbuildings said that theylived here because they had no alternative.

`We have lived in this house since partition because we had no option to change accommodations.

If the government helped us, then we will move out from here,` Nazir Malik, a resident of Bazaar Talwaran, said.

Shujaat Haider, who lives in Sarafa Bazaar, said that the house neighbouring his was in bad condition but neither its owner nor the RTMA are interested in rebuilding it.

`It is vacant but it will create problems for the neighbours if it collapses,` he said.