‘Inquiry into child death to be completed in two weeks’
By Saad Saud

ISLAMABAD—Minister for Housing and Works Syed Safwanullah on Sunday said that inquiry into a road accident that claimed the life of an innocent child in the capital city would be completed within two weeks after which law would take its course against the culprit.
Addressing a news conference the Minister said when the accident occurred on 28th of last month he and his family members were in Karachi. Safwanullah said when he arrived here on November 28 evening he was informed that an official car which was actually under control of the Public Works Department (PWD) and its driver had gone missing.
“I directed the authorities concerned to lodge a complaint about missing of car and its driver with the Secretariat Police Station and they did so without wasting any time,” the Minister said. He said the very next day that car with a body of a child was recovered in the jurisdiction of the Margalla Police Station.
The Minister said Tariq, one of the drivers who used to drive the car presented himself before the police a day after the arrest of his brother and recorded his statement. Safwanullah said when some newspapers carried news stories saying the car was being driven by a woman then an inquiry committee has been constituted under the supervision of Senior Joint Secretary of the Housing Ministry to look into the matter.
He said both Tariq and other driver of the car Jaffar have been suspended and inquiry was under way to ascertain the truth. The Minister said his ministry would extend every kind of cooperation to the police investigation because death of an innocent child mounted to a grave tragedy.
Safwanullah said he has no protocol officer in Islamabad and Karachi as well, adding, any claim in this regard is totally baseless. He said that he visited the house of the bereaved family but no one was there as all the family members have gone to their ancestral village for burial of the dead child.
The Minister said strict measures would be taken to prevent private use of any official vehicle and authorities concerned have been directed to keep vigil over it. Talking about the seismic survey of Islamabad and Rawalpindi the Minister said both the cities have been included between lower and higher risk category zone.
He said the Prime Minister has directed to conduct a seismic survey all over the country, which is currently under way. To another question he said the government servants having official residence would be given ownership rights on their retirement through a scheme, which would be launched in collaboration with a bank.
He said the bank would extend loan to serving government employees to construct their housing units and no official fund would be used for this purpose. When the government employees would pay loan through instalments they would be given ownership rights of their respective housing units,” he said.