KARACHI: Majority of the roads of Karachi went extremely damaged in recent rains which has exposed their substandard construction and the government should investigate into this matter and fix responsibility to the corrupt officials and contractors who caused this loss of billions of rupees to the taxpayers money, demanded Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor here Sunday.
He said though the nexus of government officers and private contractors to loot the public money is active in whole Pakistan but in Sindh it has already crossed all limits. He said government officers from top to bottom are involved in corruption in government contracts, especially of road and street construction. He said a bunch of blue-eyed contractors always get lucrative contracts and if a proper investigation is carried out political affiliation of these contractors could easily be established. He said it is alleged that not only the officers but the ministers of the concerned departments also get their share from this corruption and kickbacks money. He said in some departments the rate of commission in government contracts is almost fifty percent, adding after paying this commission and kickbacks money the contractors are allowed to use substandard material in contracted projects.
He said in recent rains some portions of Main University Road and Jahangir Road went washed away that were reconstituted or repaired just a few months ago. He said Lahore has also received heavy rains but the roads and streets of Lahore are not as affected as the roads and streets of Karachi. This is because the political corruption level in Punjab is much lesser than in Sindh.
Altaf Shakoor said shoddy construction of roads is the wastage of public money which is a direct violation of human rights and the Supreme Court could rightly take suo moto notice of it. He said civil society could also file a constitutional petition against shoddy construction of roads in Karachi in the Sindh High Court to stop this wastage of taxpayer money and ensure that the corrupt contractors and their brackets and patrons in the Sindh government are sent to jail.
He said it also must be probed why certain contractors and certain construction material companies are always given government contracts in Sindh. He said if the civil society failed to raise voice against this loot and plunder our next generations would be the sufferers.
He demanded of the Sindh chief minister Murad Ali Shah who is a civil engineer himself to personally supervise a deep probe against the destruction of roads and streets in Karachi during the recent rains and take action against the black sheep that are tarnishing the image of the ruling PPP and its chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
He suggested that construction of roads and streets should be given to the civil engineering departments of the engineering universities and colleges of Sindh so that to ensure construction quality on one hand and give practical training to engineering students on the other.
