The lawmakers both from opposition and treasury in Senate on Thursday were skeptical about completion of new Islamabad International Airport by August 14 next year and demanded to refer the matter to National Accountability Bureau (NAB), saying there are flaws in the projects which needed investigation.
Senator Kulsoom Parveen of ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) went on to say that the airport would not be operational even in 2035, for which she insisted to hand it over to NAB to ascertain reasons behind the inordinate delay in completing the project as the cost has escalated from Rs 35 billion to Rs 200 billion.
She further said that the under-construction dam would not be completed by September next, adding a committee of the House should be formed to take notice of the situation by visiting site of the project. Referring to a report by General Shahid where there is no mention of the two dams, she added, a thorough probe into the delay coupled with other problems surrounding the important project, makes it a perfect case for the top anti-graft body.
The senators voiced their concerns during the question hour when Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shiekh Aftab assured the Senate that the work on Ramma dam to supply water to the new airport would be completed by December this year, whereas the land for Kasana dam was being acquired.
However, Senators Kulsum Parveen, Lieutenant General Abdul Qayyum (Retd), Saeedul Hasan Mandokhail and Mohsin Aziz questioned that while the airport was nearing completion, why this negligence was shown on how water requirement of the international-level project would be met, as one dam was incomplete while for the other, land was yet to be acquired.
Senator Qayyum questioned: how much quantity of water would be required for the airport per day and does the feasibility report envisage these two dams. The minister tried to convince the enraged senators that since the Prime Minister had given date to Civil Aviation Authority to complete the project by August 14, 2017, adding it would be ready by the given dateline.
He assured the House that there would be no more delay in its completion, saying he had no objection if the House committee visited the project. He agreed with the senators that the two proposed dams would be filled with rainwater but added six high-powered tube-wells would also be installed to meet the airport need in case of no rains.
"It is as if, we have an element in possession but have not installed small doors. It is a huge negligence that you are nearing completion of an international airport but don't have water supply system ready," said Senator Mohsin Aziz. The Minister agreed that there were issues but insisted that instead of consuming time on probe and punishing those to be found responsible, one must look ahead, as the Prime Minister would inaugurate the airport on August 14 next year.
Senator Mashhadi who was chairing the session, referred the matter relating to import of 51,000 tons of powdered milk from various countries, including the United States, France, India, New Zealand and the European Union to the committee concerned for deliberations and report after MQM's Senator Mian Ateeq and Muhammad Azam Swati raised questions about the import.
They alleged that the powdered milk was in fact a tea whitener (artificial milk) and that the import of this item was great injustice with the nation. In a written reply, Commerce Minister Khurram Dastgir, said that milk was imported to cater to the domestic demand for direct and indirection consumption by children, babies and used as tea/coffee whitener.
Later, after the question hour, the Senate Chairman, Mian Raza Rabbani, was successful in convincing enraged Baloch senators led by Senator Kulsoom Parveen who wanted to stage a token walk-out from the House on the issue of CDA employees belonging to Balochistan.