ISLAMABAD - The National Highway and Motorway Police (NHMP) are going to start deployment of its force on Lahore-Sialkot Motorway from this week.
It was informed on Friday by the Inspector General of NHMP Dr Kaleem Imam to the Public Accounts Committee that met under the chair of MNA Rana Tanveer Hussain here at Parliament House in Islamabad.
He informed the committee that there was no provision of motorway police in the PC-I of the project. He, however, said that the NHMP is going for soft opening of the deployment of its personnel on said motorway from this week.
The committee also raised serious objections over absence of any service area on the motorway. Chairman Rana Tanveer Hussain said that there is no facilitation on said motorway and people are forced to travel without having basic road side necessities.
MNA Khawaja Muhammad Asif, who belongs to the same area also pointed out that the quality of pavement on Lahore-Sialkot Motorway is also very poor and needs improvements.
In response, the General Manger Right of Way National Highway Authority informed the committee that the said motorway is under control of a subsidiary of the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO).
He said we have already conveyed that the service area on said motorway was in the project plan so it should be constructed. He said the FWO management assured us that the service area would soon be made operational.
Earlier, in an appropriation of grant, the audit officials pointed out that the ministry of communication has lapsed an amount of seven billion rupees in financial year 2018-19 that creates financial indiscipline.
The Secretary Communications Zafar Hassan explained that the said grant was issued against multiple projects of his ministry but a major chunk that was lapsed was related to KIDCL project.
The Auditor General of Pakistan Muhammad Ajmal Gondal confronted and said if the funds could not be used then the ministry could inform the finance division and refuse to take them. He said that it is a systematic error and be corrected once for all.
