ISLAMABAD, Aug 29: Three main opposition parties have jointly submitted a notice to the National Assembly Secretariat drawing attention of the legislature towards the government’s plan to build a third airport near the federal capital, in Rawat.

The notice submitted by the Pakistan Peoples Party, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has been signed by five MNAs --- Imran Zafar of PPP, Ali Raza Abidi, Muzammil Qureshi and Salman Baloch of MQM and PTI’s Ali Muhammad.

“Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif while chairing a meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office on Aug 23 proposed construction of a new airport for Islamabad in Rawat, the southern side of Islamabad, ignoring an under-construction airport in Fatehjang which has been named after Benazir Bhutto and is about 75 per cent complete,” MQM’s Ali Raza Abidi, a mover of the notice, told Dawn.

The prime minister claimed that the under-construction Benazir Bhutto International Airport (BBIA), on which billions of rupees had already been spent, had design faults. Therefore, there was a need for another airport, in Rawat. He said the airport in Rawat would be linked to Rawalpindi and Islamabad via train links and existing Islamabad Expressway.

In the opposition notice the government has been asked to explain why it has floated an out-of-box plan at a time when the under-construction airport is near completion and billions of rupees have already been spent on it.

“The prime minister in the meeting admitted that no funds are available for the proposed airport in Rawat and, therefore, the right of way for the airport road linking it with the twin cities will be auctioned to generate funds,” the MQM leader said.

The prime minister reportedly said the existing Islamabad Expressway (from Zero Point to Rawat) would be rebuilt on the pattern of Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai and the state land along it would be auctioned to meet the cost of the proposed airport.

Interestingly, a similar plan had been given by real estate tycoon Malik Riaz to the Capital Development Authority in 2008 and he wanted to build the road as a joint venture with the civic body, but the plan was rejected due to resistance by the CDA and the media.

The mover of the call-attention notice alleged the PML-N government wanted to facilitate one of its leaders, Sheikh Aftab Ahmed, who owned a large piece of land in Rawat.

“If the plan of the new airport in Rawat is approved, the price of Mr Aftab’s land in the area will go up manifold,” Mr Abidi said.

Another signatory to the notice said the proposed airport in Rawat would be a security threat to a no-fly zone in the airspace above the sensitive nuclear installations in Kahuta.

The MQM leader asked the government to explain what justification could there be for shifting the airport just 10 months before BBIA’s completion and commencement of operations.

Defence Secretary Asif Yasin Malik told the Supreme Court on Aug 19 that the under-construction airport in Fatehjang would be completed by June 2014 as 78 per cent work on it had already been completed.

He said the airport spread over 3,600 kanals of land had two runways with a landing facility for the Airbus-380, the world’s biggest commercial aircraft. The new airport, he said, would cater to nine million passengers annually.

The project manager of BBIA, Mohammad Musharraf, reportedly said on Aug 25 that Rs85 billion had been spent on the under-construction airport as its original cost amounting to Rs37 billion had escalated due to a delay in the project and hectic land acquisition process.

He said all the expenses of the project were borne by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and no loan was taken for it. “It is expected that the investment on the project will be recovered in 7.5 years,” he said.