Aleem Khan blames Punjab, KP govts for delays in highway projects

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Communications Abdul Aleem Khan on Friday blamed provincial governments for delays in the completion of various highway projects. Presiding over a National Highway Authority (NHA) review meeting, the minister issued a decisive mandate to accelerate the completion of critical infrastructure, signalling a shift toward federal intervention where provincial commitments have faltered. Expressing formal dissatisfaction with the progress of projects involving the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governments, Khan noted that delays would no longer be tolerated, as these delays were impeding progress on many vital projects. He specifically highlighted that after waiting for over five months for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to fund the Peshawar Northern Bypass, the NHA decided to complete the project independently if provincial funds were not released. Khan also observed that the Punjab government had remained unable to deliver its promised share for the Rawalpindi-Kahuta project, prompting him to direct the NHA to assume full responsibility for completing the unfinished transit corridors. Alongside these administrative directives, the minister ordered the expansion of the motorway network, directing that the Lahore-Sialkot Motorway be widened from four to six lanes and that the Sialkot-Kharian and Kharian-Rawalpindi sections be built as six-lane motorways. He emphasised the need to meet strict technical and timeline targets, directing that the feasibility studies of all NHA projects achieve 100pc accuracy and that the final phases of ongoing works — particularly the bridges on the Peshawar Northern Bypass — be completed before the July monsoon season. The meeting, attended by the communications secretary and the NHA chairman, also provided the federal minister an opportunity to express displeasure over the slow pace of work. Khan reiterated that he would prioritise the rapid completion of projects to improve the efficiency of the national tr