Parliament Lodges: delay in construction of 104 family suites draws NA body's ire

National Assembly Standing Committee on House and Library has expressed displeasure over inordinate delay in construction of 104 additional family suites and servant quarteers at the Parliament Lodges. The committee met with Acting Speaker National Assembly Murtaza Javed Abbasi in the chair here at the Parliament House on Tuesday.
The committee expressed resentment over absence of managing director M/S Habib Rafique from the meeting. The committee has called managing director for personal hearing in connection with construction of 104 additional suites and servants quarters. While expressing displeasure over the inordinate delay in construction of 104 additional family suites and servant quarters at the Parliament Lodges, the acting speaker said that the project was started in May 2011 and supposed to be completed in 2013; however, due to poor performance of the construction firm, it could not be completed till date.
He said that the House and Library Committee had extended all-out support to the construction firm for early completion of the project and issued directions to the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to resolve if there was any hurdle in completion of project. The acting speaker said that contractor had been provided with the sufficient opportunities for personal hearing but he always made lame excuses and misled the committee. He further said that the contractor made several commitments before the committee for timely completion of the project but he could not fulfill his commitments.
Abbasi said that on the request of construction firm, the committee had extended time period for completion of project for six times but the firm unilaterally terminated the contract without any reason. He said that the committee had cooperated with the firm in all respects but the firm remained unsuccessful in completing the project. Resultantly, the committee has unanimously recommended for blacklisting the firm for executing any project of the National Assembly in future. However, the firm had approached the court and got stay orders against the committee's decision. He said that the firm has been using delaying tactics for the last four years and whenever any action is taken against the firm, it tries to hide behind the stay orders of the court or the arbitrator, he added. He said that the firm had been provided several opportunities to clarify its position but it could not present any plausible reason to justify the delay. He said that in the light of the directions of High Court, the committee has given another chance to managing director of M/S Habib Rafique to appear before the committee in presence of CDA to clarify his position but he did not bother to appear before the committee to clarify his position. The committee was of the view that the contractor did not want to complete this project intentionally and is using delaying tactics.
The committee observed that due to non-completion of the project, several parliamentarians have not been provided with official accommodations for the last four-and-a-half-year. The committee expressed displeasure over the reply of the representative of M/S Rafique Habib who was present before the committee on behalf of the firm. The acting speaker said that the firm has failed to give any solid reason behind the inordinate delay and objections raised by it are of very petty nature. He directed the National Assembly Secretariat and CDA to actively pursue the case of blacklisting the firm for executing any project of the National Assembly in future and submit record of committee meeting in this regard before the court.
The meeting was attended by MNAs Malik Abrar Ahmed, Mehboob Alam, Maulana Qamar-ud-Din, Mian Muhammad Rasheed, Sardar Mumtaz Khan, and Dr Mahreen Razaque Bhutto, besides CDA chairman and senior officers of Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD), CDA and National Assembly Secretariat.