Federal Minister for Communications Dr Arbab Alamgir Khan has informed the National Assembly that an inquiry team was constituted by the Prime Minister's Inspection Commission (PMIC) to determine the cause of the collapse of Sher Shah Northern By-pass Bridge, Karachi to fix responsibility.
In a written reply to the National Assembly, he said that the report of the team categorically attributed the collapse of the bridge to ill-conceived structural design prepared by the Consultant M/s ECIL. He added that the proceedings against M/s ECIL for declaring it black-list are pending adjudication before Pakistan Engineering Council; initiated upon the recommendations of PMIC-Inquiry Team.
Departmental disciplinary actions by way of show-cause notices and explanations to officers recommended by the PMIC-Inquiry Team, within NHA were duly served by the Competent Authority and are in final phases of processing. An appeal (CPLA) against Naveed Zaheer, Director M/s ECIL is pending adjudication before the Supreme Court of Pakistan Islamabad against judgement dated September 14, 2008 of Sindh High Court at Karachi in CP NO D-1198/-8, whereby the Court passed directions to remove his name from Exit Control List, placed on the recommendations of Interior Minister under Section-2 of Exit from Pakistan Control Ordinance, 1981.
He also said that the Inquiry report is already posted on NHA web-site www.nha.com. pk. An appeal against judgement dated May 29, 2009 in CP No D-620 of 20-09 of Sindh High Court at Karachi has also been preferred before the Supreme Court of Pakistan, against exemption/removal of M/s. Zaheer Mirza and Khalid Mirza, Directors, M/s ECIL from the Exit Control List.
NHA has instituted a suite for damages against M/s ECIL before the Court of original jurisdiction in Islamabad for sum of Rs 4,696,982,088/-with costs, for damage to bridge and tarnishing the image of NHA. In another written reply to the National assembly, Federal Minister for Ports and Shipping Babar Khan Ghouri informed that Port Qasim Authority (PQA) has earned Rs 3358.00 million as profit since March 2008. The PQA is a self-financed organisation whose budgeted and actual revenue during the said period is as under: Budgeted Revenue, Rs 12120 million and Actual Revenue, Rs 13280 million.