Parliamentary Secretary for Communications Gul Asghar Khan told the National Assembly on Friday that Balochistan, which covers a large part of Pakistan\u2019s road network, is being given top priority in current and future road projects.
\nResponding to a question during question hour, he said that about 40 percent of the country\u2019s total road network lies in Balochistan, making it an important part of Pakistan\u2019s transport system.
\nThe federal government, he assured, would continue to focus on the province in all National Highway Authority (NHA) and Motorway projects.
\nGul Asghar Khan informed the House that one road section in the province had become unusable after completing its lifespan, despite heavy investment.
\nHowever, rehabilitation work on the entire 100-kilometre stretch had already begun to ease travel problems for local people.
\n\u201cA damaged five-kilometre portion is also being upgraded,\u201d he said, adding that the contractor had been directed to sprinkle water regularly and take steps to reduce inconvenience to the public during construction.<\/p>\n
Reaffirming the government\u2019s commitment to improving road conditions, he said efforts were underway to make travel safer and smoother for commuters.
\nThe parliamentary secretary said two main organizations \u2014 the National Highway Authority and the Motorway Police \u2014 work under the Ministry of Communications, each keeping a six percent employment quota for Balochistan.
\nHe explained that NHA recruitments are made through open competition after publishing job advertisements in national newspapers, in line with the federal government\u2019s quota policy.
\n\u201cCurrently, 86 employees are working under the Balochistan quota out of 1,818 staff members in Grade 10 and above,\u201d he noted, adding that the representation was fair and transparent.
\nHe further said the quota was also being fully implemented in the Motorway Police to ensure participation of Balochistan\u2019s workforce in national institutions.
\nReplying to another question, Gul Asghar Khan said that since November 2023, the NHA had implemented a 100 percent Axle Load Control Regime on all national highways and motorways.
\n\u201cThis strict zero-tolerance policy against overloading helps protect road pavements. Overweight vehicles now face heavy fines and legal action,\u201d he said.
\nThe system, he added, is being enforced through 210 weight stations, including 14 mobile units, in coordination with the National Highways and Motorway Police.
\nHe also said that NHA was improving highway safety standards by upgrading accident-prone road sections in line with national and international best practices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Parliamentary Secretary for Communications Gul Asghar Khan told the National Assembly on Friday that Balochistan, which covers a large part of Pakistan\u2019s road network, is being given top priority in current and future road projects. Responding to a question during question hour, he said that about 40 percent of the country\u2019s total road network lies …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":89259,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89246"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89261,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89246\/revisions\/89261"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}