The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday cancelled development contracts worth Rs 3.5 billion awarded by the previous government for the construction of roads in the constituency of former Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf. The single bench of IHC comprising Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui cancelled the contract and declared that the contract was awarded in a non-transparent manner.
The court also ordered that the contractor National Logistics Cell (NLC) to return the amount that was paid to them as well as asked Pak-PWD to award of contract again in a transparent manner within 30 days. The court adjourned the hearing till April 5.
The court on March 25 had issued show-cause notices to Pak-PWD officials in a contempt of court application where a petitioner had requested the court that funds for development projects had been released despite the court's stay orders. An IHC bench had issued stay orders against the award of contracts on November 5 last year on a writ petition filed by the GCPL. The show-cause notices were issued to the director-general of Pak-PWD, superintendent, executive engineer, Federal Treasury Officer (FTO) and acting FTO.
The contempt of court petition was filed by Gondal Construction Pvt Ltd (GCPL), alleging that the award of contraction of Mandra-Chakwal and Sohawa-Chakwal roads given to other contractors in violation of Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules. GCPL, through its counsel Syed Nayab Hassan Gardezi, contended that these projects in the constituency of the former prime minister had been awarded without open bidding and competition.
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