KARACHI, Aug 17: The first meeting of a high-powered committee set up by the government to investigate the collapse of two berths at the Karachi Port ended on Thursday without any progress.

A port and shipping expert told Dawn that since all the three members of the committee were not competent to investigate such a technical issue related to civil engineering, boring and piling along with hydraulic engineering, the outcome of the meeting was not surprising.

He said that the collapse of berths was a civil work related to structure and designing, but unfortunately the high-ups in the ministry of ports and shipping also seemed to be ignorant about the technical qualification of the committee members.

“It seems the ministry of ports and shipping wants to sweep the issue under the carpet as it has constituted such an incompetent committee,” another expert said.

These experts pointed out that even in the recent fire incident at the PNSC building the government had appointed those people to investigate who were themselves allegedly responsible for the mishap. The PNSC chairman, who has worked in the Pakistan Navy on operation side, was named as head of the probe committee with two other members. One of them was in-charge of safety and security. The third was the director general ports and shipping, who has worked on the education side in the Navy throughout his career.