SIALKOT   -   A high level meeting was held here on Sunday to review the ongoing construction work of sewage, water supply and parks upgradation project under the Punjab Intermediate Cities Improvement Investment Programme (PICIIP) in the city initiated by the Punjab government.

The meeting was held at DC office which was attended by Deputy Commissioner Maisam Abbas, Member Provincial Assembly Rana Abdul Sattar Khan, former Mayor Tauheed Akhtar, former Deputy Mayor Ch Bashir, former MPA Chaudhry Muhammad Ikram, Deputy Director Development Abdul Rauf, Chief Engineering PICIIP Muhammad Akhtar Abbasi, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Solid Waste Management Company (SWMC) Khalid Goraya, XEN Construction Engineering Azhar Iqbal, representative Nespak Mehmood Ahmed, Public Health Abdul Waheed, XEN Building Issa Janjua, former UC Chairman Mian Ashfaq and Nawaz Bhatti, Chief Officer (CO) Metropolitan Corporation Sialkot (MCS) Zubair Wattoo, XEN Irrigation Umair Tanveer and Ch Saifullah, stakeholders and officers concerned.

Addressing the participants, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Central leader Muhammad Manshaullah Butt said that according to the vision of Chief Minister Punjab Hamza Shahbaz, each penny of development funds would be spent honestly in Sialkot.

He said that building departments had a national, legal and moral responsibility to ensure quality in the development projects so that projects proved to be sustainable.

He said the quality and speed of ongoing projects under PICIIP project would be ensured. Deputy Commissioner Maisam Abbas said the Punjab Intermediate Cities Improvement Investment Project was a city development project, and it was essential for stakeholders to be fully aware of the importance of project.  He said that the responsibility of officials of Punjab Intermediate Cities Improvement Investment Programme (PICIIP) was to keep close contact with the public representatives to ensure the timeline of the project and community honours.

The DC said that the projects should not be delayed without any reason and be completed within the stipulated period. Chief Engineering PICIIP Muhammad Akhtar Abbasi highlighted the physical and financial progress of the work done so far under the PICIIP project and said that there was no doubt that the project had been delayed but “I hope that my team would not repeat this mistake in future”.