Margala Towers Islamabad Residents' Society meets
By Adnan Rafique

ISLAMABAD—Members of Margala Towers Islamabad Residents' Society (MATIRS), a registered body of both owners and residents, held an emergency meeting last night to discuss the Margala Tower situation. They greatly appreciated the media, local and international support to the affected and the relief effort.
Chairman Capital Development Authority's (CDA) comments on the tragic situation were discussed by the participants and were unanimously rejected as insensitive, inaccurate and objectionable. They maintained that CDA is responsible for the approval of plans and construction. To the extent that design, construction and approval were defective it is to that extent responsible for the tragic events (8th Oct) that have followed. Furthermore, CDA has been time and again informed about engineering and structural problems with the Margala Towers but no action was taken by CDA to address them.
MATIRS appreciated Islamabad Police's registration of the FIR against the concerned officials and agreed to cooperate with the police on the criminal case. MATIRS agreed to seek further legal advice on legal action on the property, tort and civil aspects.
CDA has failed to make any arrangements to immediately house those who have been rendered homeless.
It is essential that responsible authorities are held accountable for their conduct, which has resulted in the tragic loss of life and to prevent any such further occurrences. We hope that the Government of Pakistan and Ministry of Interior will support our efforts to ensure that offenders are held accountable for such criminal negligence, the affected persons' needs immediately attended to, and the affected duly compensated to ensure that citizens are duly protected.
MATIRS established a Media Co-ordination Cell, located on the Margala Towers grounds and shall be open 24 hours to provide information. Mr. Masood Shaikh on 0300 8559523 and Mr. Iftikhar Chaudhry on 0300 9567531 can also be contacted for information. A Base Relief Camp has also been established to support the MATIRS members also located on the Margala Towers- grounds, open round the clock.