Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) secretary has told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly that cracks have appeared on the runways of the Benazir Bhutto International Airport in the federal capital before it has become operational, due to a defective design and use of substandard construction material.

A senior adviser and consultant has said that cracks on the runways can pose a serious threat to aeroplanes when the airport opens next year.

The PAC, which met at the Parliament House on Tuesday with opposition leader Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah in the chair to discuss CAA audit objections of 2013-14, called into question the airport’s ability to cater to heavy planes such as Boeing 707.

Auditor General of Pakistan Asad Amin submitted the CAA audit report to the PAC, saying that more than Rs 22 billion financial irregularities were found during the audit of accounts. He said the airport project was started with a total outlay of Rs 36 billion, but its cost gradually increased to Rs 87 billion.

PAC members were stunned by auditor general’s report. Work on the airport project was started when Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar was the federal defence minister and at the helm of CAA affairs. The PAC was informed that the foreign consultant firm, which was hired by the previous government for the airport project, never visited Pakistan. It allegedly prepared its report on the project in France.

The PAC unanimously formed a three-member parliamentary committee headed by Ashiq Gopang to look into the CAA scam and submit a report. The auditor general said that CAA authorities paid Rs 4,083 million to the contractor. He said the change in the engineering design of the project caused a huge loss to the national exchequer.

The PAC was informed that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) was asked three years ago to initiate an inquiry into Rs 2 billion paid to the contractor illegally, but it did not complete the task.

The auditor general said that a cargo terminal was being built at the airport at the cost of Rs 40 million. On the direction of the then Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani, who wanted the project to be completed before time, the CAA reportedly paid Rs 1,000 million to the contractor. He said that Gilani did so to please the then President Asif Ali Zardari, who wanted to inaugurate this project before his retirement.

At this point, PAC Chairman Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah was going to fix the corruption-related audit para, but the auditor general opposed this and said that corrupt people were looting the national wealth. He said this financial scam should be investigated so that people know the culprits.

The PAC directed the CAA secretary to hand over a commercial plot adjacent to the Karachi airport to the government. It said that disciplinary action should be taken against the official who approved lease of this plot to a private company for a petrol pump. It said that official’s decision cost the national kitty Rs 160 million.

The federal secretary for the CAA informed the PAC that a new water reservoir had been built near the airport to supply water to the airport.