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| June 18, 2005 | Saturday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 10, 1426 |
Litigation brings Rs4.8bn loss to exchequer : Construction of Karachi terminal
ISLAMABAD, June 17: The national exchequer has suffered an accumulated loss of Rs4.86 billion because of the Civil Aviation Authority’s mishandling of a litigation regarding the construction of the Jinnah Terminal Karachi.
The information was provided in the National Assembly on Friday in response to a call-attention notice moved by MNAs Mehnaz Rafi, Riaz Fatyana, Gule Farkhanda and Iqbal Mohammad Ali Khan.
The government admitted that due to the mishandling of a case between constructors of the Jinnah Terminal and the CAA in 1999 the exchequer suffered a huge loss which was neither reported nor investigated to fix responsibilities.
The house was informed that the construction company had a claim of $132 million which could have been reduced to $50 million had the officials concerned at that time handled the case properly.
The parliamentary secretary on defence said that the company had at one stage agreed to settle the case out of court when it was processed in the international court in Singapore, but the opportunity was missed by lawyers on the ground that Sindh High Court had stayed the case although it had no bearing on the international court.
As a result of the lapse the international court gave ex-party decision and the CAA was made to pay $100 million to get rid of the litigation.
Riaz Fatyana claimed that the accumulated loss to the exchequer stood at Rs4.86 billion which should have been investigated and the persons responsible be punished.
Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain agreed to the suggestion that the matter be referred to the house’s committee on defence where the movers should also be associated in the process of investigation to fix the responsibility.
The movers demanded exposing the names of the lawyers who were hired by the CAA against huge remunerations but still they lost the case.
US VISA: The opposition in the National Assembly strongly agitated the reported denial of US visit visa to Justice (retired) Javed Iqbal and demanded that the government should declare the US visa officer concerned as ‘persona non grata’ and also to restrict American citizens’ visit visas in a tit for tat reaction.
Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain, the younger brother of PML president, said Pakistan should strongly react to the disrespect in which a respectable man was made to suffer.
He said it was strange that Pakistani citizens were treated in such a disgraceful manner despite the fact that Islamabad was an ally in international war on terrorism.
He said that the Americans visiting Pakistan should also be given the same treatment.
Farooq Amjad Mir said it was not understandable as to what danger American felt from an 80-year-old couple who was visiting Washington on an invitation from a local Pakistani American foundation.
He demanded the government to call in the US ambassador to lodge official protest and declare the visa officer concerned as ‘persona non grata’.
Through a jointly moved call attention notice by M. P. Bhindara, Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain, Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah and Farooq Amjad Mir, the MPs reminded the government that despite Pakistan’s front line role in US war on terror such a treatment should be an eye opener.
Responding to opposition’s criticism Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar said that US visa rules following 9/11 were applied to the entire world and were not Pakistan specific.
He said the matter has been taken up with the US embassy and a suitable reaction would be registered with the American administration.
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