March 27, 2003	Thursday	Muharram 23, 1424

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KOHAT, March 26: The project manager of Japanese construction company, Taisei, which excavated the Kohat tunnel, a Rs5.3 billion National Highway Project, has expressed his anguish over the illegal crossing of the tunnel by the convoy of the NWFP chief minister Akram Khan Durrani, Dawn learnt reliably from inside sources.

Elaborating on the incident the source said that last week the chief minister and his cavalcade forcibly crossed the tunnel and abused the guards as well.

He said that the chief security officer stationed at the tunnel informed the staff concerned that he had told the staff piloting the CM’s cavalcade that labourers were at work inside the tunnel and there were no proper safety equipment and lights in the tunnel requesting them not to use the tunnel. But they did not listen to his advise and almost 12 cars crossed the tunnel at double the allowed speed.

Later on, a Taisei official blocked the road at the Rawalpindi crossing to show to the chief minister the rules and regulations issued by the NHA and the interior ministry banning the use of the tunnel unless there was medical emergency.

When the a DSP found out that a Japanese officers was determined to try and stop the chief minister’s motorcade, he informed the SSP and an alternate route was adopted.

A senior Japanese officer said that in case an accident had happened the government would have blamed the company for it adding that Pakistani officials had no regard for rules.