All highways except Lahore-Islamabad Motorway left unattended: Supreme Court

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday summoned the chairman National Highway Authority (NHA) to appear in person before the court and also sought details of highways across the country.

A two-member SC bench, comprising Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Mazhar Alam Khan Miankhel, heard the case regarding dilapidated condition of the RCD Highway.

During the course of proceedings, the court asked the NHA to explain why police were not deployed on the Quetta-Karachi road for the safety of passengers. The plight of highways could endanger people's lives, it added.

The bench directed that the condition of the Quetta-Karachi road should be improved up to 100 percent. The quality of work of reflectors and marking lines on highways was substandard, it added.

The chief justice said the marking on roads was washed away due to rain.

The Chitral-Gilgit Road construction was shown completed in the papers but in reality no such road existed. He asked why the Quetta-Karachi Road was not being built like a motorway.

All highways except Lahore-Islamabad Motorway have been left unattended, he added. He said there were only rocks on the Chitral-Gilgit Road and a car could not run on that road.

The chairman NHA said that the Chitral-Gilgit road was being operated by the provincial government while the road was handed over to the NHA a year ago.

The chief justice said billions of rupees were spent on renovating highways every year while the Karachi-Hyderabad highway was not being built by NHA.

He observed that the NHA was not doing standard work and a bridge was not built until 10 people die. Justice Mazhar asked what was the cost and revenue of NHA.

He said people were ridiculed on roads in the name of searches. Later, hearing of the case was adjourned till the first week of December.