June 30, 2007	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Sani 14, 1428

ISLAMABAD, June 29: As all roads and events lead to the Supreme Court these days, the daily traffic mayhem on the city’s underconstruction roads has also reached the haloed steps.

Justice Javed Iqbal, the senior-most judge of the apex court, on Friday ordered Capital Development Authority’s acting Chairman Kamran Shafi to appear before him on July 7 with a strong reason to justify the delay in completing the work various roads and underpasses which has made the life of commuters miserable

Justice Iqbal took the suo motu cognizance on a news item regarding failure in meeting the deadlines set for road-widening projects, construction of under-passes and the alleged use of sub-standard material by contractors in the construction work.

The article deplored that the poor conditions of roads and bridges have caused pollution, traffic hazards to the general public and commuters and different diseases including gastroenteritis, hepatitis and asthma to the population along the construction area.

Though Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had taken notice of the miseries long before the Supreme Court did, his directions to the CDA failed to hasten the construction work.

Contractors doing the work blame the delay on CDA which, according to them, took months to arrange the shifting of the gas, water and telephone lines in the construction area.

The inordinate delay in widening the roads and constructing the underpasses had been telling on the nerves of the citizens who have to manoeuvre through dug up roads, ditches and heaps of construction material lying on the roads.

Patience runs out of the daily commuters when they find well-travelled routes suddenly sealed off, leaving them to find their own alternate routes.

This kind of groping becomes more dangerous during the night, particularly at places where the construction work has disrupted street lights.

Started in June 2006, the underpass at Kulsoom Plaza, Blue Area, was promised to be opened to traffic in January. But it is yet to be finished. Its total length of 1.072 kilometre crosses the Jinnah Avenue, Fazl-i-Haq Road and Nazimuddin Road, and the traffic on all three roads is disrupted.

Such pains await the road users when underpasses are built on the Ninth Avenue and a flyover at the Faisal Chowk.

The Pakistan Environment Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) had also expressed reservations on the sluggish construction work of the underpass and responsible for creating environmental problems for the people. Heavy dust in the air had become a regular feature in the vicinity of the underpass causing air-borne diseases in the capital.

PENSIONERS’ PLIGHT: Justice Javed Iqbal also took another suo motu notice on the problems faced by pensioners in collecting their pensions from banks and directed the Governor, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to submit a report in this regard on July 12.

He said the report should also contain recommendations and suggestions on the mode of disbursement of pensions to facilitate the pensioners.

The notice was taken on a programme telecast by PTV World on June 26 on the plight of pensioners in collecting their pensions.

The programme showed the pensioners queuing up outside the banks from daybreak till noon to receive their pension.