Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Communication has expressed annoyance over non-initiation of work on the western route of the multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and demanded Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to take notice.

The committee, which met in the Parliament House on Friday, with Senator Daud Khan in the chair, observed that work on the CPEC western route had not been started anywhere. “PM’s orders for completing western route are not being implemented. Absence of the National Highway Authority (NHA) officials and provincial chief secretaries from the committee meeting shows irresponsible attitude of the government.”

Despite clear directives issued by the prime minister to acquire funds from the Asian Development Bank and concerns raised by the committee, no heed is being paid to start work on the western route, the chair said. He added delay in land acquisition, design, feasibility report of the project made laughing stock of the prime minister’s orders. He asked why alignment from DI Khan to Zhob and Zhob to Sohrab had not been accomplished so far.

The committee while expressing regret over slow pace of work on Takht Bhai flyover directed officials concerned to ensure completion of work on the flyover by the first week of December.

Meanwhile, the committee expressed displeasure over unilateral increase in toll fees on Lahore-Islamabad Motorway and sought reply from the departments concerned by October 3.

Representative from the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) told the meeting the toll was increased as per the toll structure given in the concession agreement with the NHA.

NHA Chairman Shahid Ashraf Tarar said his organisation also had reservations over the toll increase and had approached communications secretary in this regard. He said the secretary had promised to sort out the matter within days. The committee also showed concern over outsourcing of test and interview process by the Motorway Police for new recruitments to a private testing system. The committee was of the opinion that the Establishment Division had no powers to direct institutions to organise their tests and interviews through such testing systems.

Among others the meeting was attended by Sajajd Hussain Turi, Usman Khan Kakar, Kalsoom Perveen, Kamil Ali Agha and Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif.