Suri for early completion of family suits, servant quarters of Parliament lodges

ISLAMABAD: Deputy Speaker National Assembly Qasim Khan Suri Friday directed the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to complete the construction of additional family suites and servant quarters in the Parliament’s Lodges.

Chairing a meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on House and Library, he took exception over the inordinate delay in completion of the project that was initiated in 2011, said a press release received here.

The committee members also highlighted the issues being faced by the parliamentarians in the lodges and pointed out that the cost of the project was being increased day by day.

Suri asked the CDA Chairman to re-tender the project in professional manners.

In order to improve the services in the lodges, he directed the civic agency to reshuffle its staff working in the building for more than three years.

The deputy speaker also directed the CDA to take proper measures for the cleanliness and security of the Parliament Lodges.

Emphasizing the importance of Urdu language, he said all the proceedings, notices and reports of this committee would be in national language from this day along with its English version. He directed the CDA and other concerned to apprise the committee in Urdu language.

The committee members expressed their reservations over the presence of irrelevant individuals roaming in the parliament lodges. The chair ordered the CDA to maintain proper record of each and every individual entering in to the parliament lodges. The committee members also pointed out that the maintenance work, carried out in the Parliament lodges and MNAs Hostel, was of substandard quality that needed to be improved.

The deputy speaker directed the CDA to make it essential that completion certificate regarding maintenance must be signed by the allottee of respective family suites. As per committee decision, he directed to expedite the process of vacating the illegal occupied lodges and asked the quarter concerned to present its report in the next meeting.

The CDA Chairman assured the house that professional approach would be adopted to redress the grievances of the parliamentarians.

The meeting was attended by MNAs Murtaza Javed Abbasi Wajiha Akram, Munawara Bibi Baloch, Rubina Irfan, Musarat Asid Khawaja, Nasiba and senior officers of the National Assembly Secretariat.