The Senate Standing Committee on Housing and Works on Tuesday expressed displeasure over the unsatisfactory reply of Pakistan Public Works Department, Peshawar, regarding the case of alleged malpractices in PWD Batkhela Division, KPK. The Chairman Committee, Senator Haji Hidayatullah Khan ordered a sub-committee to look into the matters regarding malpractices and embezzlement in Pak PWD Batkhela Division, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The sub-Committee has to submit the report to the main committee after evaluation of the facts. The committee was briefed regarding Pakistan Public Works Department (Pak-PWD) water filtration plants and tube wells installed along with staff posted there in grade-14 and above. The local government system of Pakistan is highly ill-organized and facing lack of Control and supervision at District and Provincial level. The officers are unaware of the problems and situation at ground and all the works related to the water supply, sanitation, planning and construction are usually left at the discretion of the lower staff. The lower staff is indulged in illegal money making through provision of services to unauthorised/ illegal customers. According to reports, a large number of water supply connections are unregistered and linemen used to collect monthly from those customers and the money used to distribute in the whole chain. Presently, the growing problem of encroachment has shaped into a huge catastrophe in all big and small cities of the country mainly due to non abiding of the duties by the local government departments. The implementation of building code, maintenance of roads and streets along with street lights, disposal of the wastage in the cities have been forgotten by the local government departments. At times, our society has changed into a crowd due to complete violation of simple and common rules and ethics such as cleanliness of environment, following traffic rules, giving right of way to others, correct scaling and weighing etc. However , political involvement and politicisation of institutions had badly affected the performance of Country’s institutions.
