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Lack of foreign consultancy hampers road project
Terence J Sigamony
Islamabad—The construction of 1,200 km road, under District Road
Management Project, in the whole country was halted due to
non-availability of foreign consultants, says a document.
According to the document, the work has been on the project started
on 12 February, 2009. So far 30 per cent work has been completed but
due to non-availability of the foreign consultant the work was
suspended. The total cost of the project was Rs14,600,000. Out of
the total amount Asian Development Bank had provided Rs11,600,000
and the government of Pakistan Rs30,000,000. The document says that
1,200 km roads had to be constructed, 620 km in Punjab, 205 in NWFP,
225 in Sindh and 120 in Balochistan. The work was halted on the
projects as the foreign consultants were reluctant to work,
especially in NWFP and Balochistan due to law and order situation.
The 1,103 ‘Reconciliation Committees’ formed under Alternate Dispute
Resolution and Gender Justice project are also not properly
functioning . According to the document five districts from each
province were selected for the project and in the 20 districts
throughout the country Reconciliation Committees were set up.
In five districts of Punjab there 418 Reconciliation Committees, out
of them 72 are in Attock, 107 in Bahawalpur, 129 in Multan, 54 in
Jhelum and 56 in Mianwali, while in Sindh there are total 248
committees and of them 52 in Dadu, 50 in Shikarpur, 55 in Sanghar,
40 in Jacobabad and 51 in Nawabshah. In Balochistan’s 132
committees, 67 are in Quetta, 22 in Lasbella, 22 in Loralai, 10 in
Ziarat and 13 in Gwadar. In NWFP total 265 Reconciliation Committees
were formed, of them 51 in Abbottabad, 47 in D I Khan, 75 in Mardan,
45 in Haripur and 47 in Nowshera. The total 14,500 Reconciliation
Committees members, included women nazims, naib nazims and
secretaries of the districts, tehils and union councils.
Though October 6, 2009, total 20,053 cases were registered and about
7,400 cases were settled but their performances in many areas
specially the rural was not satisfactory.
Under the project 236 civil judges, judicial magistrates and session
judges were given training, arranged by the United Nation
Development Programme (UNDP). In the first phase, which was 2005-06,
$15,40,000 were spent. In the second phase that expanded to five
years from 2007 – 2011, $74,40,000 would be spent. Out of this money
38 per cent money that was $28,40,000 would be spent in the
Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) and $46,00,000 in the provincial
components federal capital. |
