ISLAMABAD: Taking note of the prevailing security situation in the country, especially in the wake of the brazen assault on the Karachi airport by militants, the authorities concerned have issued new standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the contractors of the metro bus project.

All the contractors have been directed to submit details, including the CNIC numbers of their labour force, truck drivers etc., to the administrations and the police of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

“Out of the 51 labourers and truck drivers working inside the Red Zone in the capital, 23 did not have CNICs,” Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Mujahid Sherdil told a meeting of the metro bus project implementation committee here on Friday.

The meeting, chaired by former MNA Hanif Abbasi, noted that the information about all the labourers should be submitted to the authorities within three days.

Out of 51 labourers working in Red Zone, 23 have no national identity cards, meeting informed

“We do not want any carelessness as nobody wants to see anything similar to what happened in Karachi,” said Commissioner Rawalpindi Zahid Saeed. “The prevailing situation has forced us to take tough security related measures.”

One official of the ICT administration told Dawn that some dumper trucks with the flags of proscribed organisations were moving on routes along the sensitive organisations.

“Terror groups can take advantage of the situation by just inducting an explosive loaded truck to fulfil their nefarious design,” the official added.

Though the meeting was called to review the pace of work on the project, the security issues propped up as the contractors complained that the traffic police were not cooperating with them.

They said due to the non-cooperating attitude of the traffic police and the Islamabad administration, their trucks could not move freely and the pace of work was suffering.

This led to a different debate and when asked to explain his version, SSP Traffic Asmatullah Junejo said: “How can we allow the movement of trucks in the Red Zone from 8am to 10am? This is not only related to the traffic mess and heavy rush in that area but also all the top bureaucracy and senior officers are on the road and anybody can take advantage of the situation at that time.”

Mr Junejo then turned the tables on the contractors and said almost the whole list of truck numbers, names of drivers and their mobile numbers provided by the contractors were flawed.

“It clearly looked as if the list has been prepared just as a formality,” he said, adding: “May be they thought we would not be making any on-ground counterchecking. But I have told them if things do not improve we will start restricting the entry of trucks at certain points.” After the reply, Mr Abbasi announced that the security and the traffic issues would remain interlinked.

It was decided that the basic infrastructure work on the project would be completed by September 30. But it was also pointed out that the pace of work on the Peshawar Mor interchange was lagging behind.

“The Peshawar Mor interchange has four loops but the NLC has not started work on the loops. If it did not start the work soon, it will be further delayed due to upcoming Ramzan followed by the rainy season,” Mr Abbasi pointed out.

A committee was formed to look into the pace of work on the Peshawar Mor interchange.

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2014