Federal Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar Khan on Monday said that he or his family had no links with housing societies from which the government acquired land for Rawalpindi’s Ring Road project.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, he said that he and his family would leave politics for life if it was proved that even one marla from the starting point to end point of the project belongs to him, his, his son, or any member of his family.
The federal minister said that he would issue a defamation notice to the person who had levelled allegations against him and challenged him to prove that land acquired for the project was ever taken, sold or kept by Sarwar family.
A lot of politicians and bureaucrats have linkages with housing societies, he said, adding that people from the journalist community have linkages too. “I do not have any linkage. My family has no linkage with any society or any monetary benefit from a society,” he told a questioner.
Prime Minister Imran Khan ordered an inquiry into the ring road scam after which the Punjab government decided to send the case to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) or the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for thorough investigation.
Ghulam Sarwar said that he would issue a defamation notice to the person who had used such language against him and his family. He said that he was ready to face all allegations if the person approached courts with documentary evidence. He said that a ‘journalist’ had made the project’s alignment a scandal and made an effort to link him with it, he said.
“We have no connection to change in the project’s alignment. We have no financial stake in any society. The alignment has not been changed on our whim,” he said. About the inquiry committee that investigated the scam, he said that the report finalised by Rawalpindi’s commissioner had not been endorsed by two members of the four-person committee who submitted a separate report.
He said that the inquiry report sent by the convener to the chief minister, on which the provincial government took action, was controversial. “When one or two members dissent and send a separate report, it has no purpose. It becomes controversial. This inquiry is controversial and this inquiry report has no credibility at the highest forum,” he said.
The minister said that he would raise the matter in a meeting of the federal cabinet and would ask for a re-inquiry. He said that the Ring Road project had been under consideration for a long-time and neither of the two main opposition parties had been able to implement it despite coming to power thrice.
He recalled that an alignment for the project was finalised in 1970, according to which the starting point was near Rawat while the end point was the Thalian interchange after which the traffic would emerge on the motorway. However, the National Highway Authority (NHA) had reservations and said the alignment was not technically feasible, he said.
He said that he suggested in a meeting regarding the project that the right way of motorways be utilised at which NHA said that it would cost heavily because housing societies had sprung up on the sidelines of both the M1 and M2 motorways. “No political personality has any kind of connection with the alignment. If the alignment has been changed, it was because of purely technical reasons which only technical people can describe.”
Talking about a YouTube show, he said that he strongly condemned the implication that the petroleum portfolio was taken from him due to a scandal and the effort to link him with the ring road scam’s alignment. He said that there could be a ‘personal connection’ with a house or an individual in a housing society but denied there were any financial links.
To a question, he said that his name was not included in the inquiry committee’s terms of reference or in reports themselves but it was ‘fed by somebody.’ He said that he was also trying to find the elements who had given his name.