ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Housing and Works has unanimously called upon Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to reconsider the decision to shut down the Pakistan Public Works Department (Pak PWD).
The Standing Committee on Housing and Works met here on Tuesday with Moulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri in the chair.
The committee expressed serious concern regarding the urgent and hasty closure of the Pak PWD.
This decision will affect not only employees of the department, but it may also have severe consequences for the delivery of key public services infrastructure projects.
The committee, unanimously, agreed to request the prime minister to review and reconsider the decision to close the Pak PWD.
Members of the committee, expressing dismay, said that government should focus on eliminating corruption from PWD rather than winding up of entire government entity, working since more than a century.
The secretary, Housing and Works, briefed the committee on budgetary proposals for the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) 2024-25. He informed that the Ministry of Housing and Works oversees 162 PSDP projects with a total cost of Rs100.706 billion.
As of June 2024, the ministry spent Rs48.463 billion through Pak PWD.
However, due to the winding up of Pak PWD, these projects were transferred to provincial departments, CDA, and Pakistan Infrastructure Development Company Limited (PIDCL).
Moreover, the transfer of funds to these agencies has yet to materialise due to the non-opening of assignment accounts by the CDA and the PIDCL.
The committee recommends that finances should be made available to all ongoing development projects, whether under the PSDP or SAP schemes, and be completed on priority basis.
Because these projects are crucial for the progress of national infrastructure, halting them could result in significant loss of money and resources.
The FGEHA DG also provided an update regarding the allotment of plots to journalists.
The DG informed that plots are being allotted to journalists based on recommendations received from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The DG also informed that the allotments in sectors F-14/15 are scheduled to be completed within the next two weeks.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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