National Assembly Standing Committee on Planning, Development and Reforms would take up Islamabad Safe City, Karachi (K-IV) water supply and Kachhi canal projects in its meeting scheduled to be held on Monday. According to sources, the government wanted to revive the `Safe City Project', under which about 2,000 surveillance cameras would be installed in Islamabad. The `Safe City Project' was approved by PPP-led government on December 29, 2009 in the wake of an agreement between Pakistan and China whereby the Chinese government had agreed to provide $124.72 million for the project in the form of a soft loan.
According to details, a bombproof command centre of 2,009 square meters was to be built, to which all the cameras were to be connected through 500kms of fiber optic cable, operated through a 4G network. The project was aimed at equipping law-enforcement agencies with a computer-aided dispatch system and other software such as facial recognition and vehicle management system.
However, the project was challenged in the Supreme Court and a three-member bench, comprising Justice Nasirul Mulk (incumbent Chief Justice), Justice Asif Saeed Khosa and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, had struck down the contract on August 23, 2012. The apex court had asked the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to proceed against the then prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, and other officials for violating the rules in awarding the $124.72m contract to a Chinese firm.
The federal government renegotiated the project with the Chinese company concerned and the NAB had also given clearance to the project. The NA standing committee would also discuss a vital water supply project of Karachi, called K-4, for which Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had assured his cooperation to Sindh government while announcing a matching grant for the project.
The other item on the NA standing committee's agenda pertained to a contract which the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) has awarded to a joint venture of M/s China Guangxi Corporation and Ramzan & Sons (Pvt) Limited for construction of a main canal, its earthwork, lining and remaining works of structures (3R), stretching over 13kms of phase-1 of Kachhi Canal Project. The contract costing Rs 2848m was signed between Wapda and M/s China Guangxi Corporation (JV). Kachhi Canal Project-Phase-1 which is a mega project for the socio-economic development of the country has a unique significance for Balochistan which is facing water shortage.
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