PESHAWAR: A citizen has moved the Peshawar High Court seeking orders for the relevant government departments to implement the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Model Building Bylaws, 2017, especially for the provision of facilities in commercial buildings to persons with disabilities and women.

In the petition, Mohammad Furqan Qazi requested the court to declare the non-implementation of bylaws in numerous commercial buildings ‘illegal’.

He prayed the court to direct the respondents, including Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) and local government department, to strictly implement the laws related to buildings, especially the bylaws, which declared that facilities like public toilets for men, women and persons with disabilities, parking, ramp for PWDs, proper ventilation system, elevators, and emergency exits were necessary for buildings.

Citizen complains commercial buildings lack facilities

The petitioner, who moved the court through advocate Saifullah Muhib Kakakhel, sought orders for an immediate halt to work on commercial and residential buildings, educational institutions and hospitals, which were in contravention with the bylaws and international standards.

He prayed the court to direct the respondents to conduct a survey of the buildings, which violated the building bylaws.

The respondent in the petition are the provincial chief secretary, PDA through its director- general, local government secretary, the local government and Environmental Protection Agency directors general, Peshawar’s deputy commissioner, Peshawar Cantonment Board’s chief executive officer, and Peshawar’s chief traffic officer.

The petitioner said commercial units in Peshawar were not constructed according to international standards as well as the Model Building Bylaws, 2017.

He contended that according to the bylaws, each commercial unit should be having five urinals each per 100 men and 100 women, one washbasin per 20 persons and for disabled persons one out of two lavatories in commercial units should be there with a grab bars of the minimum width of six feet.

The petitioner claimed that due to lack of public toilets in commercial units and public places, several health issues were raised.

He added that there were mostly no toilets for women in markets due to which their intake of water was almost nil which caused dehydration and other ailments.

The petitioner claimed that mostly there were no ramps for PWDs in commercial buildings badly affecting their mobility whenever they go to markets.

He said plazas and other commercial places made monetary benefits from customers but didn’t provide them with appropriate facilities.

The petitioner said as there was a lack of parking facilities, the people parked vehicles near shops on the main roads causing traffic congestion on the University Road.

He also questioned the fixing of cat eyes for maintaining traffic lanes on the University Road and said the same caused traffic congestion and made vehicles move at a snail’s pace.

The petitioner claimed that the people had been avoiding the use of the road due to multiple traffic problems.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2022