In a move that reflects rising discomfort in Islamabad over the state of federal infrastructure governance, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has constituted a high-powered committee to investigate alleged irregularities and questionable contract awards inside the National Highway Authority (NHA). The spotlight this time is not on mega new projects, but on the quiet, highly lucrative business of toll collection and road rehabilitation — where the real money lies.
The committee, headed by former federal secretary Mian Mushtaq Ahmed, includes the Chairman of the PMIC Brig. (R) Muzaffar Ali Ranjha, Commerce Secretary Jawad Paul, Cabinet Division Secretary Kamran Ali Afzal, and a representative from the Intelligence Bureau. The Intelligence Bureau’s presence is not cosmetic—it signals that the probe might go beyond administrative discipline and into the realm of influence networks, undocumented arrangements, and unexplained approvals that have defined highway operations for years.
A Contract With No Competition
The most sensitive element under scrutiny is the Lyari Expressway Rehabilitation Project, a controversial undertaking whose contract, according to official documents seen by The Friday Times, bypassed competitive bidding altogether. The committee will examine how — and why — such a major rehabilitation work was handed out without even the formality of an open tender.
The inquiry is not only about who signed the paperwork. It is about the ecosystem of decision-making: the officials who fast-tracked approvals, those who crafted the justification memos, and the administrative chain that allowed the bypassing of PPRA rules. The committee has been told to map the full bureaucratic route of the award.
The probe will extend into the murkier second layer of the project: electrical works, a technical sub-contract notorious in highways for becoming a vehicle for inflated costing, post-award price escalations, or “adjustments” justified through structural or safety rationales. The investigators will review how the evaluation was handled, what the internal benchmarks were, and whether project costs moved beyond normal thresholds.
Toll Plazas: The Silent Cash Machines
The NHA’s toll operations have long been a quiet goldmine — and the subject of never-ending political intrigue. Instead of routine tendering, several toll plazas and weigh stations are alleged to have been handed out through opaque approvals. The committee will look at the records of:
- Pattoki Toll Plaza
- Lyari Expressway toll operations
- Phool Nagar
- Ghazi Ghat
- Qutabbur
- Rajanpur
- DI Khan-1
- Kohat Tunnel
The question is simple: Who awarded these contracts without open competition — and why?
The answer, historically, has been much less simple. Toll revenues are one of the few revenue streams that remain liquid, unstructured, and controlled at the operational level. Prime Ministers and federal ministers may change, but toll concessions remain quietly profitable for the few who understand the system.
The Bureaucratic Architecture
The committee has been granted broad latitude to summon specialists, auditors, engineers, financial analysts, and legal experts. This language, buried deep in the notification, is telling. It suggests that the government anticipates a mess deeper than a procedural misstep — possibly involving layered authorizations during the previous and present administrative tenures.
The probe will deliver a fact-finding report within three weeks. The Cabinet Division has been tasked with logistical support, while NHA and the Ministry of Communications have been told to provide “full and immediate cooperation.” The notification itself bears the signature of Shakeel Ahmed Mangnejo, Special Secretary to the Prime Minister — a name that usually appears in files where the PM Office wants clear accountability trails.
A Probe Driven by Internal Anxiety
Senior officials in Islamabad, speaking privately, describe the probe as an attempt to regain administrative control over NHA — not a moral crusade. Over the last two years, several contracts were flagged by Cabinet Division analysts for “unusual approvals”, “pricing distortions”, and departures from PPRA’s open-bidding regime.
One federal officer, requesting anonymity, framed the stakes cryptically:
“The findings may snowball into disciplinary actions, or they may quietly be shelved. But either way, this is the first time in years that the highway money trail is being mapped — properly.”
Whether this investigation ends in reform or in another bureaucratic winter remains to be seen. But for once, Islamabad is not pretending the problem doesn’t exist.