Orange Line: Personal appearance of EPD DG sought

LAHORE: Lahore High Court has sought personal appearance of the Environment Protection Department director general on Wednesday (today) to respond to questions about the environmental impact of the Orange Line Metro Train project.

On Tuesday, EPD DG Javed Iqbal failed to show up before the division bench hearing petitions against the train project. Advocate Azhar Siddique continued his arguments on behalf of the petitioners. He said the government had failed to take adequate safety measures for workers hired for construction work. He said two more workers had recently lost their lives in an accident on the project site.

The petitioner’s counsel said that the National Engineering Services Pakistan (NESPAK) was awarded contract for work related to the project without an open tender.

The bench, comprising Justice Abid Aziz Sheikh and Justice Shahid Karim, observed that it was surprising that the project was launched in partnership with the Chinese government but services of only local construction companies were hired for it.

It observed that fatal accidents would have been a rare occurrence at the project site had a Chinese company been hired for construction work.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 8^th, 2016.