May 30, 2006	Tuesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 2, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, May 29: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has denounced the decision to drop investigations into a scam involving purchase of Chinese locomotives for nearly $100 million on the ground of “good faith”. A sub-committee of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) last week let off three retired army generals of charges of bungling in the purchase of Chinese engines, on the grounds that the “mistake” had been made “in good faith”.

The locomotive scam was first raised in the Senate last year after which the prime minister constituted an inquiry committee. The committee confirmed in April last that top bosses of Railways had wrongly sanctioned the purchase of Chinese locomotives, knowing well that they could not operate on Pakistan’s railway tracks for being too heavy. The locomotives weigh 140 tonnes each, but local tracks can withstand only up to 132 tonnes.

In a statement on Monday, PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar said political leaders were being chased and hounded on flimsy grounds, while serving and retired military officers were not even being probed for taking bad decisions on ground of “good faith”. He said a former prime minister was being hounded for alleged corruption in awarding pre-shipment inspection contract even though the contract brought gains to the country and she had not personally awarded the contract.

On the other hand, he said, the nation lost billions of rupees in the locomotives contract, but the accused were let off the hook just because they were former military officers.

CASES AGAINST BALOCHI LEADERS: Leader of the Democratic Alliance in Senate Mian Raza Rabbani has condemned what he said implication of senators Shahid Bugti and Amanullah Kanrani in criminal cases.

In a statement, he said the government had continuously been using the state apparatus to put political pressure on the opposition. “The problem of Balochistan is political and can only be settled through a dialogue,” he added.

Demolition of temple: Opposition members belonging to the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) on Monday submitted an adjournment motion to the National Assembly Secretariat seeking a debate on the demolition of a temple for construction of a commercial plaza in Lahore.

The motion has been signed by nine MNAs, including minority members, of the People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) and moved under Rule 92 of the Rules and Procedure for Conduct of Business in the National Assembly 1992, a source told Dawn.