Islamabad: 16th May, 2017:  The National Assembly Standing Committee on House and Library expressed its displeasure over the failure in construction of additional family suites and servant quarters at parliament lodges. The Committee, therefore, decided to write a letter to Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC) to blacklist the Construction Firm on its poor performance.  This decision was taken in a meeting of the National Assembly Standing Committee on House and Library which met under the Chairmanship of the Deputy Speaker National Assembly Murtaza Javed Abbasi at Parliament House, today.

The Deputy Speaker resented the failure in construction of family suites at Parliament Lodges and said that the Project was started in May, 2011 and was supposed to be completed in November 2013. However due to negligence of CDA and Construction Firm, the work on the said project could not be completed till date.  He said that despite several commitments before the Committee the construction firm did not make sincere efforts to complete the project. He said that due to the lethargic attitude towards the contractual obligation, the project could not be completed within the stipulated time and extended time frame.  He said that due to non-completion of this project the Parliamentarians who have not been provided residential accommodations are suffering for the last four years.   The members of the committee also expressed their grave concerns over failure in completion of additional family suites and unanimously recommended for strict action against the responsible for inordinate delay and blacklisting of construction firm by PEC.

The Chairman (CDA) informed the committee that the CDA issued several notices to Contractor for expediting the slow progress of work.  However, the Contractor failed to expedite the work progress.  He said that the Contractor is largely responsible for the delay of completion of project. He informed that CDA has imposed 10% penalty on the Construction, however the Contractor pleaded to Arbitrator against the CDA.  He assured the Committee that after the decision of the Arbitrator, fresh tenders will be called to complete the project and CDA will also request to PEC to black list the construction firm across the country.

Later, the Committee discussed the status of possession of plots to the Members of the National Assembly Employees Cooperative Housing Society.  The Committee expressed its displeasure over delaying tactics in handing over the possession of plots to the National Assembly Secretariat employees by the Federal Employees Cooperative Housing Society (FECHS).  The Deputy Speaker National Assembly directed the president federal employees   housing society to honour its commitments and  to hand over the possession of available plots to the employees of the National Assembly who had deposited the full payment of the plot as per the seniority list. Earlier the president FECHS informed the committee that only 45 plots are available with FECHS at present. The Deputy Speaker also directed the Registrar cooperative housing society to submit a detailed report regarding the appropriate action can be taken against the FECHS administration for not honouring the commitment made in the Joint Venture with NAECHS. The Committee also expressed its displeasure over the absence of Member, Admin CDA from the committee meeting without intimation.

The Committee was attended by MNAs Malik Ibrar Ahmed, Sardar Mumtaz Khan, Dr. Ibadullah, Dr. Mehreen Razaque Bhutto, Mr. Mehboob Alam and Molana Qamar ud Din