ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on House and Library Tuesday expressed displeasure over the inordinate delay in the construction of 104 additional family suites and servant quarters in the Parliament Lodges.
The committee met here with acting National Assembly Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi also expressing annoyance over the absence of Managing Director of M/S Habib Rafique, who had been summoned for a personal hearing in connection with the construction of additional family suites and servant quarters.
Abbasi said the project, which started in May 2011 and was supposed to be completed in 2013, could not be completed till date due to the poor performance of the construction company.
He said the committee had extended all-out support to the company for an early completion of the project and issued directives to the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to remove hurdles, if any, in the completion of the project.
He said the contractor had been provided with sufficient opportunities for personal hearings but he always excused and misled the committee, observing that the contractor made several commitments for timely completion of the project but failed to fulfil them.
On request of the construction firm, Abbasi said the committee had extended the time period for the completion of the project six times but it unilaterally terminated the contract without any reason.
He also said the committee had cooperated with the firm in all respects, but it failed to complete the project, so the committee unanimously recommended for blacklisting the firm for executing any project of the National Assembly in future.
However, the firm, he added, had approached the court and got a stay against the committee’s decision. The firm had been using delaying tactics for the last four years and in case of any action it tried to hide behind the ‘stay orders’ or the arbitrator, he said.
The acting speaker said the firm had been provided several opportunities to clarify its position but it could not present any plausible reason to justify the delay.
He said in the light of the high court directives, the committee had given another chance to the M/S Habib Rafique chief to appear before it in the presence of CDA officials to clarify his position but he did not bother.
The committee was of the view that the contractor did not want to complete the project intentionally and thus was using delaying tactics to gain time.
The committee also observed that due to non-completion of the project, several parliamentarians could not be provided official accommodation for the past four and a half years.
The committee expressed its dissatisfaction over the reply of the representative of M/S Rafique Habib who attended the meeting on behalf of the firm.
The acting speaker said the company had failed to give any solid reason for inordinate delay and objections raised by it were of petty nature.
He directed the National Assembly Secretariat and CDA to actively pursue the case of blacklisting of the firm for executing any project of the NA in future and submit the record of the committee’s meeting in that regard before the court.
Committee members including Malik Abrar Ahmed, Mehboob Alam, Maulana Qamarud Din, Mian Muhammad Rasheed, Sardar Mumtaz Khan and Dr Mahreen Razaque Bhutto, besides the CDA chairman and senior officers of the Capital Administration and Development Division, CDA and National Assembly Secretariat attended the meeting.
