Road to the first slot

After ranking first in the list of performing ministers, Federal Communication Minister Murad Saeed has become the talk of the town. In an appreciation ceremony on February 10 2022, Prime Minister Imran Khan awarded certificates to his top ten highest performing ministers and Saeed somehow topped the list, which has left many wondering how he got there.

Saeed is officially credited with a lot of measures which turned his ministry into a revenue earning entity, however, there is only one mega project to his credit for which he needs to be appreciated as much as possible: the Hakla-Dera Ismail (DI) Khan Motorway. This motorway is the only project which has been completed during his term as the Federal Communication Minister.

The PM Imran inaugurated the Hakla-DI Khan Motorway at a ceremony in Islamabad on January 5 this year. The 293 Kilometres long Motorway is a key part of the Western route of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The government believes that it would benefit the less developed areas of the country. However, this project commenced in September 2016 during the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) government. Its PC-1 cost was Rs110,208 million which was approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on 7 November 2016. The road was constructed in five packages.

There are also some other projects that were initiated during Saeed’s term as the Communication Minister, howver, most of these projects will take a substantial amount of time before they are completed. According to official documents available to Bol News, since August 15 2018 a total of 7,889 kilometres of road construction had been planned, of which 12 projects have already been begun and 19 others had been planned to commence during the current fiscal year. A total of 16 projects spanning a total of 2032.8 kilometre, have been completed by the National Highway Authority (NHA) with Murad Saeed at the helm of affairs. These include, two projects covering 398 kilometres in Balochistan, five projects covering 609 kilometres in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), and seven projects covering 725 kilometres in Punjab. Meanwhile, the NHA only completed one project in Sindh which covers a total length of 136 kilometres. Likewise, just one project has been executed in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), stretching over 164 kilometres.

At this time, there are 22 ongoing projects under Murad Saeed’s governance, which have a total length of 1,667 kilometres, of which eight are in Balochistan spanning 936 kilometres, eight in KP spanning 518 kilometres, five in Punjab spanning 168 kilometres and one in Sindh spanning 44 kilometres.

There is also one ongoing project each in AJK and GB. Separately, there are 12 projects under procurement which are set to cover a total length of 1,819 kilometres. Of these, three lie in Balochistan, KP and Punjab, two in Sindh and one in AJK and GB. Additionally, there are a total of 26 projects at their very initial stages, and still stand at the planning or designing status at the NHA. These projects account for the lion’s share of development projects under Saeed’s tenure, as they are estimated to cover a total of 7,889 kilometres. Meanwhile, a total of 2,368 projects are at the process of being planned or designed, out of which13 have been for planned in Balochistan, two for KP, eight for Punjab, two for Sindh and one for AJK & GB.

Despite all the projects still in the pipeline, the Federal Minister has performed very well in terms of revenue generation in his ministry. A total of Rs178 billion was generated in revenue by the NHA since August 15 2018, whereas during three and a half year government of his predecessor, between 2015 to 2018, a mere Rs79 billion was collected. In other words, Rs124.50 billion increase was recorded during Saeed’s term as the Federal Minister compared with the previous PML-N government.

This massive revenue generation is claimed to be record breaking by the NHA. According to the break up in this connection Rs153,053 million revenue was collected between August 15 2018 and November 18 2021. In terms of governance Rs158,182 million were earned during the same period and Rs5,129 million worth of land was retried. Likewise, through the implementation of strategic austerity measures as much as, Rs1,063 million were earned. While through the setup of strict accountability standards Rs19,246 million were earned.

Moreover, the cost of per kilometre of road construction also substantially reduced during Murad Saeed’s term, compared with the similar data of the previous regime. The geographic information system (GIS) field survey of the entire NHA network was also completed during his term.

Furthermore, around 90,000 new commercial amenities were identified, while roughly 18,000 notices were issued under the same pretext. As a result of these efforts, the complete list of assets and amenities of commercial buildings, markets filling stations, plazas and among others, is also available on web GIS interface. Furthermore, Right-of-Way (ROW) revenue has been increased by Rs1.8 billion which is 95 per cent increase in one year.

Some other recent achievements of Federal Minister Murad Saeed include, the Jaglot-Skardu Road which was inaugurated by the PM on December 16 2021, the ground breaking of the improvement and rehabilitation of Balkasar-Mianwali-Muzaffargarh Road having on December 11 2021 and the ground breaking of Golra Morr Under Pass (N-5).