ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary committee on Wednesday directed the aviation ministry to constitute a joint investigation team (JIT) to probe into alleged corruption in the construction of new Islamabad International Airport.

The need for JIT arose after the Senate Standing Committee on Aviation found various bodies including the sub-committee of the cabinet investigating into the corruption allegations.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) are also probing into possible corruption in the construction of the airport.

The matter was taken up by the committee after Senator Behramand Khan Tangi raised it in Senate as point of public importance in November 2018.

The senator complained that the ministry had not given any reply to its questions.

`It has been almost a year that I have not been given a satisfactory answer,` Behramand Khan complained.

Despite committing to give an update two months ago, the ministry did not have answers to questions from Senator Behramand Khan as yet.

In his defence, Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan told the committee members that he was heading a subcommit tee formed by the cabinet with ministers for interior and law as well as adviser on NAB its members to probe the matter.

`The committee will look into various issues from site selection to completion, cost escalation and terms of references. The subcommittee will try to present its findings within this year,` the minister said.

However, the aviation minister assured the committee of presenting an interim report of all the findings in the next meeting. He said that the final report would likely be finalisedbyend ofthisyear.

The committee also took notice of Civil Aviation Authority`s (CA A) notification making it mandatory for passengers to wrap luggage with plastic.

Members requested the ministry to furnish details of companies which had been given plastic wrapping of luggage contract at all airports.

According to Aviation Secretary Shahrukh Nusrat, the decision to wrap luggage with plastic had been withdrawn after seeing the difficulties faced by passengers. Plastic wrapping is now optional and price has been reduced from Rs220 to Rs50, he said.

The committee observed that the matter was not as simple as it was presented by senior officials of CAA.

The members of the committee were of the view that the details of agreement, tendering process and the contractors be shared with the committee.

It was also pointed out that once the tender was finalised the terms and conditions cannot be changed and by changing the price CAA has violated the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority rules.

Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Aviation Ghulam Sarwar has ordered an inquiry into alleged manhandling of passengers allegedly by the Airport Security Staff at Islamabad International Airport.

The incident took place on Oct 17, 2019. Spokesperson for the federal minister said in a press release that the aviation minister had decided to constitute an inquiry committee to ascertain the real circumstances in which the incident happened.