The construction industry has signed agreements amounting to Rs 225 billion approximately during 4th ABAD Expo 2017 claimed by Mohsin Sheikhani chairman Association of Builders and Developers of Pakistan (ABAD) on the concluding day. He said that they had signed Rs225 billion agreements during this three-day exhibition and termed it as lackluster response from the investors as around Rs500 billion agreements were signed during last expo. Mayor Karachi Waseem Akhtar and DG SBCA Agha Maqsood also visited and spoke at the event.
Elaborating details about the agreement, Mohsin said that Holiday Express had signed a deal of Rs 100 billion to construct five-star hotels at five different cities while rest of agreements was signed for technological advancement in construction sector and for other projects.
Hasan Bakshi senior vice chairman ABAD said that they needed to get 14 NOCs for their projects however the projects, which were patronized by the forces or their names were used, were completely exempted to get any NOC, which he termed as unjustified. He further said that department had appeared feckless to facilitate the stakeholders due to rampant corruption. DG NAB, Karachi Altaf Bawany said that construction industry was the mother of all other industries, confirming to have issues related to SBCA and consumers in his knowledge. Moreover, he said that construction quality of edifies went down during past two decades and requested the construction fraternity to improve the quality as it directly linked to the human lives.
Commenting on SBCA issue, he said that builders and developers were equally responsible for said issue and urged them to avoid greasing the palms of SBCA officials, which he believed would help the NAB in eradicating corruption.
He further requested the builders and developers to avert purchasing land with dubious titles at low market prices, which he termed as an apple of discord that led major issues for construction industry.
