Islamabad: Margalla Towers affectees fear developer may flee from the country

[Naveed Yaseen]

Muhammad Anis
Affected persons of Margalla Towers have expressed fear that developer of the collapsed building on October 8, 2005 would flee the country after getting payment of his five apartments.

In a meeting held at F-8 Media Office to review the ongoing legal battle in lower and superior court, the participants demanded that an FIR should be registered against the Ministry of Interior if Ramzan Khokar, the developer of Margalla Towers, flees from the country.

They expressed grave concern over the government’s callous attitude for not making public the Prime Minister’s Inspection Commission Report, which was prepared by the then Relief Commissioner Lieutenant General ® Farooq Ahmed, now Chairman National Disaster Management Authority.

Earlier, they said that General Farooq maintained in a the then PAC meeting, headed by former MNA Riaz Fatyana that some ‘influential persons’ are forcing him to change the facts of the report.

“The participants viewed that both Shaukat Aziz and Zardari government are concealing the facts of the report,” a statement issued by the affected people’s media office, said. They said in fact, reportedly, the 1600-page report held responsible various bureaucrats, mostly from the Capital Development Authority, who served the civic body during construction of Margalla Towers.

The participants observed that these bureaucrats have immense pressure on police inquiry in the criminal case against Ramzan Khoker and his accomplice. They appealed to President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yususf Raza Gillani to make the Margalla Towers investigation report public, if the present government is really representing the aspiration of common masses.

Talking to journalists after meeting, the spokesman of Margalla Towers maintained that participants have decided to make an organization comprising of affected persons, lawyers, journalists, civil society members who will point out various irregularities in the government and semi-government departments of Islamabad and make them public with the help of media.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=139711