The Directorate of Municipal Administration (DMA) of Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI) is the issuing authority of No-Objection Certificate (NoC) to telecom companies. The directorate has issued more than 500 NoC’s to different telecom companies which have then illegally installed mobile signal towers on rooftops of many dilapidated plazas.
According to Islamabad Capital Territory bylaws, the ownership rights of rooftops of buildings, having common ownership, shall be the property of all owners of the building jointly, up to 85 percent according to their share, including the owners of the top floor. The remaining 15 percent shall be the property of all owner of the top floor jointly, according to their share, in addition to their original shares. The rooftop shall be accessible to all owners’ tenants as agreed jointly. The rooftop shall not be used/ owned by the developer/ owner or any one stakeholder in any case and the developer shall have no ownership rights in this regard.
But, unfortunately, due to the shaky implementation of law, the capital has more than 500 mobile signal towers and almost all of them have been illegally installed on the rooftops and no authority is interested in checking them out.
“The telecom companies gets the NoC from DMA after fulfilling the criteria which include building structure stability certificate of a building (in a commercial area), NoC from Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and other formalities,” said Director DMA, Tahir Shehbaz Nadeem .
Answering a query, he further said, there are myths that mobile towers causing ‘critical health constraints’ and there is no mature research in it.
“The telecom companies did agreements with the chairman committees of plazas, individual owners of top floors and gets registry from the registrar office at sector F-8, Kathecry. However, by law, registrar can’t register with the name of any company, individual, committee chairman as the rooftop is the ownership of every single owner of flats, shop of buildings, said a businessman of Aalay Plaza, Ch Muhammad Shafique Gujjar.
While talking, Vice President Blue Area Market, Raja Hamid Mehmood acknowledged that there are many telecom towers illegally installed on rooftops in Blue Area and many are not even paying rent to every owner of the building. “We have just won the elections and working on it. As per Islamabad and Capital Development Authority (CDA) bylaws, the telecom companies have been bound to get every owner in confidence and to pay them,” he concluded.
“Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) is the authority for issuing NoC’s to telecom companies for installation of towers in rural areas and DMA for urban areas,” said DMA director.
Reported by this paper, back in June and July 2016, two telecom towers installed on rooftops of commercial markets and near residential area collapsed in the twin cities.
One of the telco tower, situated in sector G-9, came apart on 2nd June in a torrential rain spell. The second telco tower fell down near Rawalpindi District Courts on 18th of July. Fortunately, in both incidents, human life remained unharmed.
On August 27, the Emergency and Disaster Management (E&DM), MCI wrote a letter to the Pakistan Telecom Authority chairman demanding that it must take stern action against radiation being spread by mobile towers and relocate them as they pose serious health issues to the public at large.
The letter said that mobile towers are causing critical health constraints across Pakistan, especially in the capital. It said that the trend of these towers is responsible for giving birth to ‘billions of complicated diseases like brain tumors, high blood pressure, high sugar, glaucoma etc followed by carcinoma-like homicides’.
The letter further said that it had requested for a policy review, by relocating all such high-grade radiation emitting gadgetry away from residential areas, thus assuring life and safety of the innocent residents in every street, sector, and colony of the capital.
During past 11 months, three mobile towers of different telecom companies have fallen during monsoon season. One tower collapsed near Rawalpindi court. Fortunately, no loss to death occurred, however, damage to property was compensated by companies in an attempt to resolve matters out of courts.
Contact could not be made with the Registrar, Naeem Azam despite several attempts.
