No new contract awarded to build Karachi's Red Line corridor, Sindh High Court told

Advocate General Jawad Dero informed a two-judge constitutional bench comprising Justice Muhammad Saleem Jessar and Justice Nasir Ahmed Bhanbhro that the contract will be awarded after the completion of the notice period of the firm earlier granted the contract. He stated that in the meantime, the government had only awarded work related to drainage and rehabilitation of a road. Last week, the provincial government had announced that it had cancelled the contract of a construction firm over lack of progress and unsatisfactory performance. Later, the contracting firm, AM Associates and CR 3, had petitioned the SHC and submitted that they were executing the project, but the police and district administration had sealed their project site at Aladdin Park and served a termination notice without any lawful justification and contrary to the terms of the contract. At the last hearing, the bench had appointed a nazir (court official) as commissioner to visit the site of the project and prepare an inventory of the machinery and also issued notices to the respondents. When the hearing began on Wednesday, petitioner’s counsel Barrister Salahuddin Ahmed informed the court that the project was reportedly handed over to the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO). He submitted that the process of making the inventory was not competed yet. He said the advocate general might inform the bench under which law the government had sealed the project site. AG Dero submitted t