Earthquake-resisting building in Pakistan

In 1935 an earthquake destroyed the city of Quetta, now in western Pakistan. It killed around 30,000 people. The colonial government (of British India) tore down all remaining structures and imposed a seismic building code during reconstruction. The code mandated the use of reinforced materials and restricted the heights of some buildings. 

This was the only time that the colonial government in India attempted to impose earthquake-resisting standards on an entire city, including privately-owned land. Officials checked plans and made inspections to ensure compliance.

Another deadly earthquake struck Quetta in 1955, after Pakistani independence. The post-1935 buildings performed well: most of the damage was to the unreinforced walls of compounds rather than to buildings themselves. Although the maximum intensity felt at the ground reached VII on the modified Mercalli scale (compared with VIII in 1935), only a handful of people were killed. 

Sources:

• Khan, Abdual Qadir. ‘Earthquakes and Aseismic Design in Pakistan’. In Proceedings of the 1st World Conference on Earthquake Engineering, 19: 231–39, 1956. http://www.iitk.ac.in/nicee/wcee/article/1_23-1.pdf.
• Haines, Daniel. ‘India, 1935, Quetta Earthquake (Case Study)’. In Shelter Projects 2017-2018, edited by Global Shelter Cluster. International Organization for Migration, 2019. http://www.shelterprojects.org/shelterprojects2017-2018.html.