The quality of construction work in the public sector during the days when Brits ruled this part of the world was far superior than such work carried out after the partition of the subcontinent. The main reason for this was the curse of Commission money which the contractors of the work pay to the officials of the nation building departments from overseer onwards to the head of the concerned department. When full budget sanctioned for a project is not spent and a big part of it is dished out as commission quality of work obviously gets compromised.
Syed Mazhar Ali shah
Almost daily many trains cross over Attock’s steel railway bridge for the last 150 years. Nobody has noticed even a tiny defect in it. The same goes for many other such steel bridges standing in Waziristan and Chitral which have withstood the ravages of time because of the high quality material used in their construction because of their flawless designs made by the concerned engineers and use of construction material strictly according to the approved quality and rates mentioned in the tenders by the sanctioning authority. It is an open secret that in many third world countries like us contractor of the construction work in cahoots with the staff of the nation building department right from overseer below to the top man get an handsome commission according to their ranks from the contractor to whom the construction work like roads,buildings and bridges are tendered out. The contractor doesn’t carry out work according to the specifications mentioned in his contract agreement. He uses substandard construction material but his work bills are passed by the concerned government mandarins because they get paid with handsome money through commission with the result that the constructed work collapse or decays soon. The oldies say that during the British rule in this part of the world the practice of payment of commission money was also in vogue but then only 2 percent money of the sanctioned budget used to go in such commission but after the creation of this country over 22 percent goes in commission. One can well imagine that if half of the approved budget for construction of a developmental work is eaten in the commission how can such bridges like that of Attock bridge can be constructed now?
The curse of Commission can only be eliminated if those involved in it are made to stand in front of a firing squad in full public view as is done in China.
POST SCRIPT
Unless our rulers shun their extravagant way of life,size of our non developmental budget cannot be curtailed. Once Prince Philip, husband of England,’s late queen Elizabeth and father of present King Charles of England was on a tour of Pakistan. When he landed at Islamabad airport a limousine was waiting for him alongwith a protocol officer of the Foreign office. When he saw the posh car he sardonically told the said protocol officer Oh you are still using such cars. We have stopped using them long ago. The Indian ministers use small cars. Once their prime minister Munmohan singh turned down a summary submitted to him seeking permission for the purchase of a BMW for his official use and directed that instead the Indian made car known as Ambassador be purchased which was much cheaper than BMW. One of our Ambassadors to North Vietnam writes in his book that when he visited the office of North Vietnamese President in Hanoi for presenting his papers of credentials he was shocked to see that the furniture laid there was made of bamboo wood. Once a senior official of the World Bank on a visit to Islamabad was shocked to see costly furniture fixed in its offices and chandeliers of prohibitive cost hanging from the ceiling of President House and couldn’t resist remarking Oh now I can see where Pakistan spends our loans.
