Many point to years of complacency toward the earthquake threat despite frequent tremors, shoddy building techniques and the open secret of widespread corruption in the awarding of public building contracts.

"A probe must absolutely be carried out to prove this point that buildings should be taken care of not so lightly. The highest level of corruption in our country, sadly, is found in construction," architect Nayer Ali Dada told AFP.

Whole villages and swathes of larger cities in northern Pakistan and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir were destroyed by the 7.6-magnitude quake that struck Saturday, killing more than 25,000 and leaving 2.5 million homeless.

Few expected flimsy, privately-built residential structures in the impoverished region to survive such a massive jolt, but the loss of so many schools full of students, and hospitals that should now be caring for the thousands of wounded, has angered architects and engineers.

"Everywhere in the world public buildings are seen as symbols of strength and safety, but in Pakistan it's the opposite. It's high time that we realise where the fault lies," said architect Salman Mansoor.

The United Nations says 1,000 medical facilities were completely destroyed in Saturday's earthquake, a critical shortage amid fears of disease due to the decomposing bodies and imminent cold weather.

In North West Frontier Province, education officials estimated around 8,000 schools had been damaged or totally destroyed. Hundreds of children were buried alive at their desks.

"The deaths of hundreds of schoolchildren resulted from the collapse of buildings built with poor quality materials. A separate probe commission should be set up," said Ahmed Shah, an estate agent originally from Kashmir.

"There is no concept of testing or any proper design. Most of the development funds for schools are shared by the elected representatives, builders and government officials," he said.

Journalists who went to devastated Kashmiri towns that felt the full force of the quake said that, in some cases, schools and hospitals lay in ruins while neighbouring houses were merely cracked or lightly damaged.

"Public buildings suffered more in the earthquake because usually their construction is poor and the work is not supervised by experts in the field," said Sohail Abbasi, an architect, engineer and building contractor.

"Unfortunately the construction and design is substandard and we have no quality control. The local administration is supposed to oversee the work but normally they don't."

He said government contracts often went to the "lowest bidder" even when it was clear the work would be second rate.

"The prime factor is illegal gratification. There is total apathy on our part -- we consider construction is a joke," Abbasi said.

"You can commit violations of building rules in Islamabad and can get them regularized on payment of penalties. The whole system needs to be revamped."

Dada said 80 percent of public building projects were carried out by unqualified engineers within government departments.

"They work like clerks. They're not working on design or safety. This is a very major factor," he said.

Media reports about dangerously bad construction swirled around the 10-storey Margalla Towers complex in Islamabad even before it collapsed in the quake, killing at least 34 people.

Construction engineer Sohaib Ismail said Pakistan lay on well-known faultlines but buildings were rarely built to withstand earthquakes.

"Structures in the danger-zones need to be built so they can sway but not collapse," he said.

"Unfortunately, in the construction of government school buildings in the quake-hit areas, bad quality material was used and the concerned contractors got the designs approved by paying commissions to officials."

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