report in Dawn, January 1st, 2021
LAHORE: Officials of two Turkish contractors protested against the Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC) on Thursday for not returning their machinery to them and withholding, what they claim, Rs3 billion dues.
Protesters gathered in front of the workshops at Saggian and Ferozepur Road where they arrived to take over offices and the machinery from the LWMC.
“Following orders from the Lahore High Court that the machinery and workshops of Albayrak and Ozpak be handed back to them, the higher management and employees of the Turkish companies came to workshops to take charge from the LWMC on Thursday. But no one from the LWMC implemented the court orders,” said Project Director (Albayrak) Cagri Ozel.
“The LWMC has been using tactics to avoid the orders,” he added.
Also on Wednesday, he said, the LWMC administration closed its head office on the pretext of the emergence of a couple of Covid positive cases.
“Today too they are not even responding our calls or Whatsapp messages,” he said.
He said the LWMC head wrote to both contractors to resolve the matter amicably but the latter does not give any assurance to the contractors that the matter would be resolved.
Protesters demanded that the LWMC return the machinery and other assets in the light of the court orders, failing which they would file a contempt petition.
According to a senior Pakistani official of a Turkish contractor, they imported 95 types of equipmentand bought the remaining 218 in Pakistan.
“We never received any reimbursement cost from the LWMC,” he said, adding that 65pc of the machinery of the contractors did not fall under the contract.
“This additional machinery was procured for the sake of improvement and quality,” he added. He said the mobilization advances received by the contractors in 2012 were returned to the LWMC as per contract.
The LWMC managing director was not available for comment.
LDA: Lahore Development Authority DG Ahmad Aziz Tarar on Thursday visited various private housing schemes to review arrangements about pumping of water and receipt of aquifer charges from developers in the light of Lahore High Court directions, according to a spokesman for the LDA.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1598912/turkish-contractors-protest-non-compliance-of-court-orders
