Contractors along with their hired goons attacked the house of a journalist in Chitral and threatened him with dire consequences after he reported embezzlement of millions and faulty work in a construction project funded by Aga Khan Agency for Habitat (AKAH), reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Saturday.
AKAH is the sister organization of Aga Khan Development Network. When the reporter of 24NewsHD pointed out the misappropriation and substandard work of the AKAH project, the contractor of a fake company along with his accomplices attacked the house of the journalist and threatened him.
According to details, a 300-ft long protective wall and a 300-ft dam are being built on a rain nullah in Saingor village in Chitral under the AKAH project with the cost of Rs8.8 million.
But sources claim that the amount of funds is much bigger than the stated amount of Rs8.8mn. They say that in the documents, the protective wall was approved as plum concrete in which the plum (large size natural coarse aggregate or boulders of roughly 300mm size or larger) occupies 40% of total mass of concrete which will be 60%.
But the contractor of the fake company was building this wall with 100% boulders, using no cement at all. Thus, the AKAH was trying to misappropriate funds through a fake company.
The protective wall which was being built with the substandard material could not be able to withstand the monstrosity of floods and would have washed away by a single flood torrent.
When the reporting team of 24NewsHD showed pictures and videos of this substandard work to the engineer and regional manager of the AKAH, they got annoyed that their corruption was going to be unmasked. Unwillingly, they ordered for the flattening of the wall.
When the protective wall was brought down on the orders of AKAH, the president and manager of the fake company flew into rage and attacked the house of 24News reporter and hurled threats of dire consequences at him.
Reporter Gul Hammad Farooqui