Unencumbered land of motorway: NOC approved for raising funds through Wakala mode

ISLAMABAD: The National Highways Authority’s (NHA) Executive Board has approved issuance of NOC to the Finance Division for raising funds by issuing Shariah-compliant retail instrument in Wakala mode using the unencumbered land of Lahore Sialkot Motorway (LSM).

Official documents revealed that the Executive Board meeting was presided over by Captain Muhammad Khurram Agha (retired), Chairman NHA and deliberated upon the issuance of Shariah-Complaint Retail Instrument in Wakala mode.

The Board approved issuance of NOC to the Finance Division for raising funds by issuing Shariah-Compliant Retail Instrument in Wakala mode using the unencumbered land of LSM.

The Board constituted a committee to check the status of the NHA’s assets where Sukuk bonds have been matured along with the current issues of the NHA with the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

The committee comprised of Additional Secretary (Budget) as Chairman, Member (Finance) as Member and GM (Finance) as Secretary of the committee.

The government has budgeted Rs372 billion from Euro bond/international Sukuk for 2022-23 against Rs560 billion budgeted for the current fiscal year which is revised to Rs342.544 billion.

The Board also considered National Highway Development Sector Investment Programme (NHDSIP) approval of 2nd revised PC-I.

After deliberation, the Board recommended the revised Global PC-I (2nd Revision) for the NHDSIP at a revised cost of Rs 60.200 billion to CDWP for approval.

The Board directed the NHA to submit the details of the projects requiring revised PC-I’s approvals.

The NHA Executive Board allowed to deposit decretal amount of Rs 79.301 million in the court in compliance of the judgment in Execution Petition titled as “Muhammad Fazeel etc Vs LAC NHA M-1 etc” pending before the Court of AD&SJ-XI, Peshawar from the revenue of M-1 (RMA Account) as a special case on the direction of court. The Board directed to present complete details of all such land cases, which are sub-judice in the courts of law or attained finality in next Board meeting.

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The Board further directed all concerned NHA Members/GMs to immediately prepare revised PC-Is where land component requires enhancement for payment of actual compensation.

The NHA Executive Board approved the proposed EOT for the project “Construction of 2-Lanes Highway from Basima to Khuzdar (N30) 106 Km” of SMADB - Shahrukh - MBC (JV) from October 29, 2021 to June 30, 2022 (08 months) having a financial impact of Rs 432.423 million.

The NHA Executive Board approved the following recommendations of the Board’s committee for consideration and approval of the National Highway Council (NHC): a. In compliance of the Sindh High Court judgment, a separate pool of employees whose contract services were regularized by NHA on recommendations of the Cabinet sub-committee on regularization may be maintained. This separate strength shall be named as NHA special service cadre. b. Supernumerary /Temporary posts for each employee may be created to adjust 78x officers on NHA special service cadre and also for officers/officials in BS-17 and below whose services were regularized by the Cabinet sub-committee. These posts shall be temporary to adjust employees of NHA special service cadre, therefore, no such post be transferred to regular establishment of NHA. c. Inter-se-seniority in each cadre and pay scale of regularized employees may be maintained separately in their respective NHA’s special service cadre.

Their seniority will have no effect on the seniority of NHA regular establishment of respective cadre. d. In case a post becomes vacant in NHA special service cadre, either by retirement or in case of death, the senior most of official/officer in the feeding cadre maybe promoted to the higher posts. For example on promotion of an officer to higher post in BS-18, resultantly the BS-17 post become vacant and in case no officer in the cadre is available for promotion to BS- 17, then the post shall stand abolished.

On the retirement of the last employee, NHA special service cadre shall stand abolished. e. For the purpose of career progression and motivation of the senior officers of a special cadre, supernumerary posts in BS-20 and BS-21, if required by NHA, may be created later on, after fulfilling the legal and procedural formalities. f. NHA Executive Board is not empowered to add or amend the NHA Service Rules, 1995 without National Highway Council’s approval. Therefore, waving of the written test and advertising less experience then required, without obtaining approval of National Highway Council is the lapse on part of the management and administration of National Highway Authority and it cannot be shifted to the employees, it is recommended that such cases may be placed before National Highway Council for regularizing the waving off the written test and experience. g. The posts in the regular service cadres of NHA officers and officials shall not be reduced on account of the proposed NHA Special Service Cadre.

The officers and officials belonging to the regular services cadre shall also be provided opportunity of further promotion through restructuring of the NHA service strength after fulfilling the legal and procedural formalities. h. The implementation of the above mentioned scheme shall be regularly monitored by the NHA Board committee under supervision of the NHA Executive Board and to ensure that the scheme is implemented within a period of six months. i. These recommendations are subject to clearance of court restraining orders/cases (if any). j. The above mentioned recommendations, if approved by NHC will be followed for all other contract/daily wages employees in BS-1 to 17 regularized by the Cabinet sub-committee. The Board also approved draft affidavit for submission in the Islamabad High Court.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022