Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Communications Daud Khan Achakzai on Friday revealed that not a single meeting of the committee constituted on the directives of the Prime Minister for acquisition of land for western route under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), has been held despite a passage of over one-and-a-half years.
"Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had directed on November 25, 2015 for constitution of a high-level committee for land acquisition for the western route under the CPEC in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, but chief secretary Balochistan has admitted that not a single meeting of the committee has been held so far," said Achakzai while chairing the committee meeting.
He further said that National Highways Authority (NHA)/government had even passed the trade convoy from the western route, but ground realities are totally different. "We hear lame excuses, eg funds shortage, whenever the western route issue rises," he remarked.
Inspector General (IG) National Highways and Motorway Police (NH&MP), Shaukat Hayat revealed that the PM had announced 20 percent increase in salaries of the employees of the department, but the decision has not been implemented yet.
Moreover, other police forces are enjoying better salary packages as compared to the NH&MP, hence 20 percent quota - 1,000 posts for deputations, are lying vacant and the department is facing huge deficiency with respect to human workforce. Unless there is a clear edge to NH&MP over other police forces with respect to salary and other facilities, quality output is difficult, the IG added. Chairman NHA/Secretary Communication Shahid Ashraf Tarar said that NHA has 12,131km assets across the country, however due to financial constraints only 3,064km has so far been handed over to NH&MP. He said that the issue of personnel shortage would be raised with Finance Ministry and in the first step, the case of hiring 1,000 personnel against the deputation sanctioned posts would be taken to overcome the deficiency.
He said that about 1,300km motorway would be added in the network during the next over two years. The NH&MP official said that the total staff requirement for NH&MP (uniformed), as per study report of MS Wing, Establishment Division, is 6,223 posts for existing jurisdiction of NH&MP. At present, there are 5745 sanctioned posts (uniformed) in NH&MP. As such, there is a shortage of 478 posts (uniformed) in NH&MP, a case for creation of 500 posts in NH&MP in order to meet the existing requirements is already under process in Ministry of Finance. Upon issuance to sanction letter of 500 posts, the actual requirement of uniformed officers will be fulfilled.
Likewise, the total staff requirement (non-uniformed) is 1,665 posts for existing jurisdiction of NH&MP, there are 1,377 sanctioned posts (non-uniformed) in NH&MP. As such, there is a shortage of 288 posts (non-uniformed) in the NH&MP. A case for creation of 288 posts in NH&MP in order to meet the existing requirements is already under process in Ministries of Communications and Finance.
The NH&MP has always come up to the expectations of the government and public in terms of road safety and service delivery. The National Highways Safety Ordinance, 2000, mandates NH&MP to perform traffic control functions on all federal highways. In future, the NH&MP will have to be deployed on all federal highways and motorways. In this connection, summaries have been submitted to the Prime Minister for approval of manpower and other resources.
In addition to above, the cases for deployment on other highways and motorways will also be initiated as per policy of the federal government in light of the provisions of Section 90 of the National Highway Safety Ordinance (NHSO), 2000.
The Ministry of Communication officials said that 10 cases were received from NH&MP for creation of posts as well as sanction/ approval of necessary logistic and financial resources for deployment of NH&MP on above mentioned new roads. Accordingly Ministry of Communications has moved the summaries to the Prime Minister through Establishment Division and Finance Division for approval.
The committee recommended for granting 20 percent increase in NH&MP salaries as per the Prime Minister package, besides hiring local people while keeping in view the length of highways to give job opportunities to local.