'Authorities trying to sabotage probe into Northern Bypass bridge collapse'

Expressing displeasure over "Sher Shah Bridge" investigation, the relatives of the "Northern Bypass Bridge Collapse" victims have demanded President General Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and the Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry to take strict action against the authorities trying to sabotage the Sher Shah bridge collapse investigation.
Talking to this scribe on Saturday, the relatives of the bridge collapse victims observed that the Sher Shah bridge collapse is a striking example of inaction on the part of Shamim Siddiqui, the Federal Minister for Communications, who is also the Chairman of the National Highway Council, Tariq Mahmood, Federal Secretary, Communications, Major General Imtiaz Ahmad, Chairman, National Highway Authority and the Chairman of the National Disaster Management Cell, Lieutenant General Farooq Ahmad (Retd) who have spoiled the investigation of this grave and heinous crime.
A colossal engineering failure, the first in the history of Pakistan, occurred on September 01, 2007 when a newly constructed bridge of the National Highway Authority at Northern Bypass Karachi, collapsed, killing scores of people at the spot, and injuring many, including three under-training police constables. The bridge was inaugurated by President General Pervez Musharraf on August 6, 2007.
Karachi's Northern Bypass project takes off from the ICI Bridge and traverses through Mauripur Road, SITE Road and RCD Highway and the collapsed bridge is the second of the two flyovers of this 62.15-km project.
While talking to this scribe, the angry residents remarked that no significant action against the responsible for mishap has been taken as yet. The lower staff is being made scapegoats. They too have been suspended temporarily until the whole issue calms down.
They pointed out that Major General Farrukh Javed (Retd), the former chairman NHA, Colonel Aziz-ul-Haq Mirza (Retd), the former member operations NHA, Engineer Yousaf Barkazai, Project Director concerned and the NHA General Managers including Colonel Safiullah, Engineer Abdul Haq, Engineer Mobeen Siddiqui, Engineer Asim Amin, Engineer Arshad Chaudhry who remained associated with the Northern Bypass Project, Colonel Iqbal (Retd), NHA's full time consultant for bridges, Engineer Zaheer Mirza, Chief Executive of M/s ECIL and the contractor Major General, Zahid Akhtar, Director General, National Logistic Cell and his Project Manager concerned whose names are clearly mentioned in the execution of the collapsed bridge are still at large and no effort is being made to arrest them and to bring them to justice.
They demanded the, Pakistan Engineering Council, to suspend the professional engineering licenses granted to the engineers involved in the execution of the Northern Bypass project, irrespective to their present status and portfolios, till the final investigations and those found guilty must be booked under section 302 of Pakistan Penal Code, besides banned and blacklisted forever.
The eyewitnesses and residents of Shershah Paracha Chowk suspect an unholy alliance of industrialists and alleged corrupt National Highway Authority's officers, M/s Engineering Consultant International Private Limited (ECIL), M/s National Logistic Cell (NLC) and the sub-contractor to be behind the undue alteration of the bridge design.
Angry residents, shopkeepers and their elected representatives of UC-4 SITE Town claimed that alteration in the Sher Shah bridge design had been accommodated just to safeguard the interests of industrialists whose factories are situated nearby the bridge.
Had it not been altered, some of the important industrial units of the area could have lost their precious land or infrastructure, they alleged. Some locals pointed out that substandard construction material used in the construction of the bridge and faulty design led to the collapse of the bridge.
Meanwhile, a senior official of the National Highway Authority, on condition of anonymity for fear of angering the big boys in the federation of Pakistan has urged the authorities to find out whether the award of Northern Bypass to M/s National Logistic Cell was on merit or otherwise.
He urged the authorities to probe into the tendering and pre-qualification process of the Northern Bypass and Lyari Expressway projects. He said, the authorities must check whether M/s Engineering Consultant International Private Limited (ECIL) had the appropriate experience of designing bridges of such high magnitude or not.
He said they need to find out whether the contractor M/s National Logistics Cell had the relevant experience of making such a big "snake like" bridge or not. He said, they need to check whether the contractor M/s National Logistic Cell had bridges specialist on board or not.
He said, they must check if the bio-data's of bridge specialists were evaluated, cross-examined by the National Highway Authority or not. They must look into the review of consultant design by the contractor M/s National Logistic Cell (NLC). Any alteration in the bridge design at a later stage needs to be checked he pointed out.
The involvement of consultant, which was exclusively hired for bridges on lucrative terms and conditions, in the National Highway Authority Head Office need to be seen. Use of substandard construction material in collapsed Sher Shah Bridge also needs a thorough probe, he said. The reasons for ignoring a basic survey conducted by the Sindh Board of Revenue (SBoR) about the land on which the said project was built should also be made public.