PM to lay foundation stone of Hyderabad-Sukkur Motorway despite corruption scandal
Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway inauguration raises question why PM Shehabz Sharif is going to lay foundation stone when the land has not been purchased yet.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will lay the foundation stone of the Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway today, whereas, the Sindh government had stopped the process of purchasing land for the Motorway after the mega corruption scandal.
Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway’s inauguration raises the question of why PM Shehabz Sharif is going to lay the foundation stone when the land has not been purchased yet.
PM Sharif will lay the foundation stone of Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway 6 today, the project will be completed at a cost of Rs307 billion.
Earlier, the ceremony was to be held on December 9, but the foundation stone ceremony was postponed due to the prime minister’s busy schedule.
The Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway project will be the last link of the motorway project starting from Peshawar.
According to media reports, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will attend the foundation stone laying ceremony of IBA University in Sukkur before laying the foundation stone of the Motorway project, after which he will inaugurate the Motorway project in the auditorium of the Civil Aviation Training Institute in Hyderabad.
The premier will be accompanied by Federal Minister for Communications and Postal Services Maulana Asad Mahmood, Federal Minister for Information Technology Syed Aminul Haque and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah.
National Highway Authority (NHA) Motorway 6 Project General Manager Parkash Lohano said that the success of the project depends on the acquisition of land by the Sindh government, which is slow. He added that he sought cooperation from the Sindh government as it is of utmost importance to speed up the process.
It should be noted that the Sindh government has stopped the process of land purchase after the corruption scandal of billions of rupees in the purchase of land in the M6 project.
Analysts say that when the land is not being purchased, what is the foundation stone of the Prime Minister going to lay? And if the land deal is done out of way, then this process also falls under the category of malpractice.
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) is investigating the Sukkur-Hyderabad Motorway land scam, and the money allocated for the project has been embezzled to the tune of Rs3.5 billion.
On the other hand, officials said that the mega corruption scandal has raised question marks on the performance of the banks concerned.
Officials say that according to the rules and regulations, cash payments or transactions are never made for the purchase of land. Payment for procurement of government projects is always made through Pay Orders, Bank Demand Draft or Cross Cheque.
