LAHORE, Dec 19: The provincial Communications and Works (C&W) secretary has ordered the release of contractors arrested in Multan and Faisalabad for repairable manufacturing defects.

C&W Secretary Fawad Hasan Fawad has already accepted all demands of the United Action Committee which met him on Thursday.

The committee consisted of the representatives of engineers, diploma engineers, clerks and contractors.

With the acceptance of its demands, the committee announced culmination of the strike it had been observing for the past few days to protest against, what they said, wrong policies of the secretary, paralysing the department and stalling development activity all over the province.

The secretary ordered the release of contractors arrested in Faisalabad and Multan after a delegation of the Federation of Punjab Contractors Associations met him under the leadership of its chairman, Sardar Ishaq Khan.

According to Mr Khan, the secretary accepted their view that the previous government wanted inauguration of the Faisalabad Institute of Cardiology’s building at the earliest and had forced the contractors to finish the construction on time at any cost. The shortcomings enlisted as misconduct and corruption by the secretary were natural outcome of the forced haste.

Mr Khan said the secretary was informed that the contractors had also conveyed to the Health Department the consequences of the haste, and they were still willing to do the needful.

The secretary ordered immediate release of all contractors, promising to withdraw all cases against them shortly, Mr Khan said.

He said the secretary invited contractors’ representatives from all over the province for a meeting in next three to four days to listen to them.

According to Mr Khan, the secretary justified all his challenged actions by saying that he wanted to end corruption in the department, and this would ultimately help the contractors in taking part in national development without any trouble.