New Parliamentary Lodges block: Senate panel chides CDA for delays

Haideri formed a sub-committee under Senator Fateh Mohammad Hasni to review security, cleanliness, and other issues

ISLAMABAD: A Senate panel on Monday chastised the Capital Development Authority (CDA) for slow pace of work on a new block of the Parliament Lodges which is being built in Islamabad.

The Senate’s House Committee met with Senate Deputy Chairman Abdul Ghafoor Haideri in the chair.

The House Committee was told that a plan for the expenses to be incurred during 2016-17 had already been submitted. According to plan, 23 per cent of the funds would be used for maintenance and upkeep of the residences of Senators. The remaining 77 per cent of funds would be used to maintain residences of members of the lower house.

The CDA chairman told the panel that workers of the civic body posted at Parliamentary Lodges had been directed to give priority to the complaints of the senators.

However, he said that a joint-committee comprising members of both houses of the parliament was supposed to be set up to review pending repair work at the lodges. The committee, Aziz said, had yet to be formed. At this point, members of the panel expressed reservations over lax security and lack of cleanliness in the Parliamentary Lodges.

CDA officials told the committee that a plan had been prepared to further improve security of the lodges in consultation with police and law enforcing agencies.

Moreover, the current contract for sanitation work at the lodges is scheduled to end in September.

On this, Haideri formed a sub-committee under Senator Fateh Mohammad Hasni to review the security, cleanliness, and other issues of the lodges and file a report to the House Committee.

Expressing displeasure over delays in the construction of the new block, Haideri said that had CDA made timely payments, the contractors would have completed the job on time.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 17^th, 2017.