ISLAMABAD: A subcommittee of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Wednesday pointed out to the interior ministry that more than half of the security cameras installed under Safe City Project were out of order.

The subcommittee convened its meeting under the chairmanship of Noor Alam Khan to discuss audit paras of the interior ministry.

When the committee pointed out that the safe city cameras are dysfunctional, the interior ministry replied that the project was initiated by the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) and it was handed over to Islamabad police later on.

The committee wanted to get briefing of the Islamabad inspector general of police on this matter, but it was told that he was busy in meetings related to upcoming JUI-F ‘Azadi March’.

The Safe City Project was launched in 2010 at the cost of Rs8 billion during the PPP government, when terrorism was at its peak.

Hundreds of millions of rupees, if not billions, were spent on this countrywide project to not only fight terrorism and protect the citizens, but also to control crimes of all types.

But in 2016, during the PML-N regime, the network of security cameras and scanners was expanded under the project, covering vast parts of urban areas, especially major cities and even some towns.

Noor Alam Khan, convener of the committee, said the Azadi March is scheduled for Oct 27 and the inspector general should have been in the PAC meeting.

Meanwhile, the National Highway Authority (NHA) disclosed before another subcommittee of the PAC headed by Syed Naveed Qamar that its revenue had declined to Rs2 billion.

The committee ordered an inquiry in this matter and directed the NHA to submit a report by Oct 25.

Published in Dawn, October 10th, 2019