Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday showing its displeasure over poor construction of Karachi-Hyderabad Motorway (M-9) sought the report over the changes made in the layout of the project. At Karachi Registry of the SC, the apex court's bench headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed resumed the hearing on a case pertaining to incurring accidents at Jamshoro-Sehwan Road and safety measures for motorists on it.
Jawad Rafiq, Chairman National Highway Authority (NHA) appeared before the bench. The court addressing Chairman NHA said that corruption is rampant in NHA whereas the people are dying while traveling on the road network of NHA.
Justice Gulzar Ahmed pointed out that construction of M-9 is substandard, where vehicles move on slow pace. He also talked about the high rate of accidents at Jamshoro-Sehwan Road and remarked that the NHA is apparently waiting for a massive disaster before taking safety measures on this road.
Justice Gulzar stated the case would be lodged against NHA if anyone dies in a road accident on this road and it would have to compensate the deceased. About M-9, the chairman NHA told the court that efforts are being made to remove the faults in design of this road, which received prompt remarks from Justice Gulzar Ahmed, who said that NHA is doing nothing.
"The situation would not be so pathetic if NHA does something," he stated and opined that NHA is, in fact, waiting for massive disaster before it does something substantial.
The SC bench directed the chairman NHA to submit a report with the court in one month time about the changes in the layout plan of M-9. It again sought the report about safety measures on Jamshoro-Sehwan Road. The SC bench is hearing a petition that submitted in the court that several accident took place at 132kms long track of the NHA between Jamshoro and Sehwan, which claimed many lives due to lack of any safety measures on it.