Airports built by CAA are faulty: Kh Asif

ISLAMABAD: Former defence minister and senior leader of the PML-N Khawaja Muhammad Asif Friday said every airport constructed by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is a scam. In a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chaired by Shahbaz Sharif, Khawaja Asif said the CAA has constructed Multan Airport terminal at a cost of Rs35 billion while the private sector of Sialkot has constructed Sialkot Airport at a total cost of Rs4 billion.

He said the business community of Sialkot was ready to give briefing to PAC on their success story. “Each share of Sialkot was of Rs5 million and more than 150 share holders and now they are constructing another runway where all international flights can land,” he said. The issue came up during examination of audit pars relating to loss of millions of rupees due to cracks in concrete slabs of apron of Allama Iqbal International Airport of Lahore. Officials of the Aviation Division told the committee that experts report on the cracks will be finalised in two weeks and after the report a final decision would be taken to remove the cracks.

They told the committee that around Rs3.4 million was spent on temporary basis and once the expert report comes up then the final decision be taken. Earlier, the audit officials briefed the committee that CAA constructed Allama Iqbal International Airport Lahore in 2003 under the supervision of NESPAK and only after two years of completion and of operations at the airport, PQC slabs started inordinate movement and a gap was created.

The Audit found that the Authority was incurring significant expenditure on repair and maintenance of the gaps developed between apron/taxiways since 2005 but in the vain. The audit officials told the committee that in the Departmental Accounting Committee meeting held on January 18, 2019, the CAA explained that as per part of the BOI, M/s CA had found errors in design of M/s NESPAK.