Parliament lodge expansion: NA panel gives contractor last chance to explain delays

NA Deputy Speaker expresses displeasure over inordinate delay in the completion of project

ISLAMABAD: With the construction of 104 family suites and servants quarters at the Parliament Lodges being delayed by five years, an NA panel has given the contractor a final chance to clarify its position.

The issue was raised in a meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on House and Library which met in the Parliament House on Wednesday with NA Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi in the chair.

Abbasi expressed his displeasure over the inordinate delay in the completion of the project.  He noted that the project was supposed to have been completed in 2013. However, the construction company contracted for the purpose had failed to do so, despite making several commitments to the committee.

The deputy speaker recalled that on the request of the firm, the committee had extended the deadline for completing the project three times. In the end, however, the firm unilaterally terminated the contract without submitting any reason.

“The committee had cooperated with the firm in all respects but the firm failed to complete the project,” Abbasi said.  When the committee unanimously recommended that the contractor should be blacklisted by the National Assembly, the firm got a stay order from a court against the committee’s decision.

Abbasi complained that the firm has been employing delaying tactics for the past four years. Whenever the committee tried to take action against it, the firm hid behind the stay orders from the court or an arbitrator without presenting any plausible reason to justify the delay.

He said that in light of orders from the Islamabad High Court, the committee will give one final chance to the contractor to appear before the committee in the presence of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and clarify its position next week.

NAECHS land

The committee also took up progress on plot handover to members of the National Assembly Employees Cooperative Housing Society (NAECHS) by the Federal Employees Cooperative Housing Society (FECHS).

The committee expressed its annoyance over delaying tactics used by FECHS in completing the joint venture between FECHS and NAECHS, adding that the FECHS was not serious in implementing the venture agreement.

The deputy speaker directed the registrar of the Cooperative Societies Department to retrieve the land and hand it over to NEACHS management committee along with the money which employees of the parliament had deposited with the FECHS administration. 

Published in The Express Tribune, March 8^th, 2018.