Islamabad: March 7, 2018:  National Assembly Standing Committee on House and Library  met  under the Chairmanship of Deputy Speaker National Assembly Murtaza Javed Abbasi in Parliament House, today.

The Committee while discussing the construction of 104 family suites and servants quarters at the Parliament Lodges, the Deputy Speaker expressed his displeasure over the inordinate delay in completion of this project.  He said that the project was supposed to be completed in 2013, however due to poor performance of Construction Firm, it could not be completed till date. He said that contractor despite making several commitments before the Committee for timely completion of the project, he could not honour his commitments. He said that on the request of Construction Firm the Committee had extended time period for completion of project thrice but the firm unilaterally terminated the contract without any reason. He said that the Committee had cooperated with the firm in all respect but the Firm failed to complete the project.  Resultantly the Committee has unanimously recommended for blacklisting the firm for executing any project of National Assembly in future. However, the Firm had approached the Court and got stay order against the Committee’s decision. The Firm had been using delaying tactics for the last four years and whenever any action was taken against the firm, it tried to hide behind the Stay Orders of the Honourable Court or the Arbitrator, he added.  He said that the Firm had been provided several opportunities to clarify its position but it could not present any plausible reason to justify the delay. He said that the Committee was giving a chance to the construction firm as per direction of the Honourable Islamabad High Court to appear before the Committee in presence of CDA to clarify it position on next Wednesday.

While discussing the progress on handing over the plots to the Members of the National Assembly Employees Cooperative Housing Society (NAECHS) by the Federal Employees Cooperative Housing Society (FECHS), the Committee expressed its annoyance over the delaying tactics used by FECHS in implementation of joint venture agreement between FECHS and NAECHS.   The Deputy Speaker directed the Registrar Cooperative Societies Department, Islamabad to retrieve and hand over precious land of NEACHS to its management Committee along with the payments deposited by the Employees of the Parliament in case the FECHS Administration was not serious in implementation of joint venture agreement. The Committee also constituted a three member sub-committee under convenership of  Malik Abrar Ahmed, MNA to monitor the implementation of joint venture agreement between FECHS and NAECHS and submit its report to the committee within one month.

The matter regarding arrears in the utility bills of Parliament Lodges was also discussed in the meeting.  The Director General (Lodges), CDA informed the Committee that CDA had paid arrears of Rs.6.8 millions on account of utility bills of parliamentarians of previous regime and no arrears of previous regime were being included in new bills. The Deputy Speaker expressed his concern over issuance of NOCs to Parliamentarians without clearance of utility bills and directed the CDA to conduct an inquiry to identify the person responsible for issuing NOCs to Parliamentarians without clearance of their utility bills and submit its report to the Committee. He also directed the CDA to submit a comprehensive report about the officer who approved the installation, their design and purchase of LED lights at Parliament Lodges.

The meeting was attended by MNAs Malik Abrar Ahmed, Mr. Mehboob Alam, Maulana Qamar-ud-Din, Mian Muhammad Rasheed and Senior Officers of CADD, CDA and National Assembly Secretariat.