January 16, 2008	Wednesday	Muharram 06, 1429

MUZAFFARABAD, Jan 15: The AJK Contractors Association has called for sacking the AJK minister for works and reconstruction for his “failure” in proper execution of development work in the quake affected areas.

Speaking at a news conference here on Monday, president of the association Raja Azad Khan, flanked by his colleagues, alleged that the minister - Col (retired) Nasim Khanand - had failed in delivering any good to the people and added that his further stay in the office could only aggravate the problems.

“As long as the minister is in the chair, the department (communication and works) cannot produce desired results. Therefore, the prime minister should immediately relieve him of this responsibility and allot the portfolio to some one else or retain the same with himself,” said the association leaders, almost all of whom are affiliated with the ruling Muslim Conference.

The association leaders thanked President Pervez Musharraf and AJK Prime Minister Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan for approving development schemes worth billions of rupees for the AJK but lamented that the benefits were not reaching out to local contractors.

“We have been badly ignored. The Erra and Serra are awarding almost all the contracts to Pakistani construction firms, most of which are fictitious and are subletting these contracts to local contractors against 15 to 20 per cent commission,” they alleged, terming the situation “highly unfair.”

The AJK based contractors, they said, were also affected by the earthquake and should have been compensated through awarding of development contracts in their territory. But, what was happening was otherwise, they added.

They stressed that it should be binding for every firm to execute the contract by itself.

The association members claimed that after more than two years of the Oct-2005 earthquake, Pakistani firms had shown less than two per cent progress in AJK, whereas, they said, most of the projects in the neighbouring NWFP had neared completion.

In AJK, they claimed, only those projects had shown progress which were being undertaken by local contractors.

The contractors appealed to President Musharraf to direct the Erra and Serra for awarding the developmental projects’ contracts to the local contractors.

The association members also criticised the Erra’s package for construction of educational institutions, saying that if one project was located in one area, the other was in opposite direction making the execution impracticable.

The notification issued by the Nespak and AJK government for not using the stones in the construction of buildings and roads was not being followed, they claimed.

The association also criticised the standard of work in two different road construction projects being undertaken by the NHA and FWO.