ISLAMABAD, March 5: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has expressed concern over the refusal of the caretaker minister of communications to make public the inquiry commission’s report on the collapse of Karachi’s Northern Bypass in September last year.

“This is a criminal cover-up designed to protect the guilty from accountability that cannot be allowed to go unchallenged,” PPP spokesman and former Senator Farhatullah Babar said here on Wednesday. The communications minister, at a press briefing on Tuesday in Karachi, had said the inquiry report was ready but owing to “certain reasons”, it could not be made public.

“The party reiterates the demand that the inquiry findings be made public immediately and those responsible exposed and brought to book,” Mr Babar said. He recalled that when the inquiry commission was set up, it was promised that the report would be ready in two weeks and also made public.

“The PPP demands to know the ‘certain reasons’ due to which those responsible for the collapse of the multi-billion rupees bridge within days of its inauguration are being protected and not prosecuted,” he said.The people had a right to know whether the NLC was qualified to undertake bridge-building projects, he added.

“If the contractor was not qualified, who gave it the contract and why? It must also be made public whether the contract was awarded without inviting open bids and why.”