Many CPEC projects in doldrums as NHA faces financial crisis

[SunilM]

ISLAMABAD: A number of road projects related to the $52 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) are said to be in doldrums as the National Highway Authority (NHA) faces financial crisis.

Sources told Dawn that contractors have stopped work on several CPEC projects after their cheques worth over Rs5 billion had bounced a couple of days .

It is for the first time that CPEC projects faced such a situation because of financial reasons.

The projects which have been hit by the situation include Hakla-Dera Ismail Khan, Western Route of CPEC and all sections of Karachi-Lahore Motorway (KLM).
According to the sources, seven packages of Hakla-DIK measuring 400km roads all projects of KLM have been affected.

The firms whose cheques have bounced include SKB, ZKB, Noman Construction, ACGC Chinese, Sardar Ashraf D Baloch, China Railway 17 Group and Matracon.

The sources said that not only the CPEC projects but local industries related to construction and a large workforce of engineers and labourers have also been hit by the situation.

When contacted, NHA spokesman Kashif Zaman said the authority issued cheques of Rs5bn on June 29 to the firms against the sanction by the government.

He said cheques worth Rs1.5bn were cleared by the same day and “the remaining cheques that were deposited the next day could not be cleared”.

Mr Zaman said the matter had been taken up with the government and hopefully it would be resolved soon.

When asked about suspension of work by the contractors, he said: “The progress on the project had not been affected. Same is true for Hazara Motorway and other sections.”

He said most of the projects in question would be completed by December 2018.

However, it has been learnt that the CPEC projects would be delayed further if the situation continues and outstanding dues of contractors are not paid.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2018

https://www.dawn.com/news/1421877/many-cpec-projects-in-doldrums-as-nha-faces-financial-crisis

 

[Sine Nomine]

When contacted, NHA spokesman Kashif Zaman said the authority issued cheques of Rs5bn on June 29 to the firms against the sanction by the government.

He said cheques worth Rs1.5bn were cleared by the same day and “the remaining cheques that were deposited the next day could not be cleared”.

That was bound to happen , because 29 June was last working day of fiscal year 2017-18, 30th of June was saturday on which almost all branches were closed and 31st was sunday.So check issued in last fiscal year would not be acceptable in new fiscal year,due to end of last fiscal year budget.

 

[HRK]

This news item by DAWN is a clear case of spin doctrine in use in Pakistani Media

ECP bans recruitments, execution of development schemes
AAMIR SAEED| APR 12TH, 2018

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Wednesday slapped a ban on new recruitments of public servants in the federal, provincial and local government departments and execution of development projects. The Commission has termed the possible induction of thousands of people in the government departments as "pre-poll rigging."

In a notification issued here on Wednesday, the Commission said, "For tangible reasons, the Election Commission is of the considered view that such mass recruitments at this point of time when the general elections of the National Assembly and provincial assemblies are going to take place in the offing will substantially influence outcome of election." The Commission said that it is imperative on all standards of legal, moral and democratic ethics that all kinds of recruitments except the recruitments which are made by the federal and provincial public service commissions be banned forthwith.

It said the Commission has considered the repeated concern of the people as expressed and voiced in the national press that money allocated to various important development projects in the country is being diverted to the development schemes in the constituencies, is nothing short of yet another facet of pre-poll rigging. The Commission said if it is not checked and brought to an immediate end, it is likely to influence the electoral process adversely and thus sending an extremely wrong message to the public at large, making the election tainted and falling short of the constitutional provisions contained in Article 218(3) of the Constitution.

"It has become imperative that the Commission may take all necessary steps under the law to prevent any action on part of the federal, provincial and local governments that amounts to influencing the results of upcoming general election by depriving candidates from having a level playing field," the Commission said. The Commission also said that all development schemes which have been approved with effect from April 1, 2018 like installation of gas pipelines, supply of electricity, roads carpeting, water supply schemes, etc, shall not be executed by the federal, provincial and local governments' authorities. Moreover, the federal government, the provincial governments and the local governments shall not issue tenders of such schemes till conclusion of general election 2018, it said. "The diversion of funds already allocated to various development projects in the country is banned forthwith and the spending of the funds so diverted shall stand frozen forthwith," the Commission announced.

https://fp.brecorder.com/2018/04/20180412360294/

When contacted, NHA spokesman Kashif Zaman said the authority issued cheques of Rs5bn on June 29 to the firms against the sanction by the government.

secondly as STANDARD PRACTICE government issues cheques with effective date till June 30th which is the end of financial year in Pakistan, so any cheque after that date is required to be reissued by concern Government authorities, same was mention & hinted in the article as well, but Dawn is doing for what it is known now a days anti-Pakistan and anti-CPEC propaganda

He said cheques worth Rs1.5bn were cleared by the same day and “the remaining cheques that were deposited the next day could not be cleared”.

 

[Chakar The Great]

And the Indian obsession with Pakistan and CPEC continues.

 

[WarKa DaNG]

Again too much obsession

 

[SoulSpokesman]

@SunilM

Sunil bhai is not a human being at all- he is a RAW-bot created to demoralise Pakistanis.

Regards

 

[pak-marine]

could this be due massive currency depreciation ?

 

[AyanRay]

@SunilM

Sunil bhai is not a human being at all- he is a RAW-bot created to demoralise Pakistanis.

Regards

Right, and he was behind the bouncing of the cheques.

 

[SunilM]

Right, and he was behind the bouncing of the cheques.

It's really sad when people come up with shady excuses to cover up a problem rather than discussing the same. Cleary the govt has run out of money if their cheques bonce, but a cover up job is sought to be done by blaming it on the end of financial year and ecp code of conduct, like cpec and development will come to a stop and no payments will be made during elections. Only NEW projects will not be sanctioned.This is the level of understanding or more appropriately a plain attempt to miguide people and then they keep calling it 'game changer'. No wonder the economy is down in the dumps!!

 

[SMC]

@SunilM

Sunil bhai is not a human being at all- he is a RAW-bot created to demoralise Pakistanis.

Regards

Who exactly is getting demoralized by him?

Right, and he was behind the bouncing of the cheques.

Nah, but he is posting spinned stories and exaggerated bullshit far more than any other person. That is basically textbook example of troll.

 

[UnitedPak]

@SunilM

Sunil bhai is not a human being at all- he is a RAW-bot created to demoralise Pakistanis.

Regards

At this stage most of us just feel sorry for him.