Only three multi-storey buildings operating with completion certificates.

ISLAMABAD -- After a 6.4 magnitude earthquake was felt in the capital on Friday, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) issued a statement saying that it has sent out 500 notices to commercial building owners for violating building by-laws, including by operating buildings that have not been issued completion certificates.

These certificates are a prerequisite for occupying buildings and deal with matters such as structural stability and fire safety arrangements.

Since the last time an earthquake jolted Islamabad, this September, the number of apartment buildings in the capital with a completion certificate has doubled to two. Including commercial high-rises, three buildings in the capital have been issued completion certificates.

According to sources in the CDA, there are two kinds of unauthorised buildings in the capital; the kind that had their building plans approved by the authority but did not obtain completion certificates before occupying them, and those that were built without approved building plans in the first place.

The capital's rural areas are dotted with the latter.

As far as high-rise buildings go, only the State Bank building has been issued a certificate.

More than 500 notices issued to building owners for violating by-laws, CDA official says

Sources said the cases of the UBL building and Ufone Towers are being processed by the CDA.

'It is a bitter reality that almost all the apartment building and high-rise buildings in this city are functioning without the required certificates,' a CDA officer said.

The Margalla Towers apartments in F-10, which collapsed in the 2005 earthquake, killing 70 people, were also occupied without a completion certificate.

The CDA officer said that under the CDA Ordinance, the authority is supposed to regulate all the buildings in the capital.

However, the CDA did not move beyond the urban areas until 2016 or 2017, he said.

He added that the CDA connected new utility connections to no-objection certificates (NOC) from the authority to prevent unauthorised construction in the rural areas a few years ago.

This move did halt...