Minister for Science and Technology Azam Khan Swati on Saturday said he would be more than happy if Chief Justice of Pakistan takes suo moto notice of the plan to purchase an old ship at an escalated price.
Speaking at a news conference here, the Minister said he would call upon the Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani to constitute an honest committee to probe the whole matter to not only fix the responsibility but also punish those who wanted kickbacks through purchasing the ship.
The Minister denied media reports that he stopped technical team from visiting Dubai for the inspection of ship worth Rs 500 million that Pakistan wanted to buy for seismic survey in the sea to determine natural resources. He said that the government wanted to purchase an old ship with a minimum operational life of 10 years. The Minister said he was unable to understand why to buy a vessel at Rs 500 million which was made in 1973.
He said that the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) was planning to purchase the ship could not be even used for deep-sea exploration and seismic survey. Moreover, he said that instead of assigning the task to a technical expert from Navy for inspecting the ship the tender committee itself wanted to go to Dubai for the purpose. The tender committee has nothing to do with the inspection of the vessel, he added.
The minister informed media persons that Naeem Sarfraz, who is former owner of the ship, has been making phone calls to the Science and Technology Ministry for opening up of Letter of Credit (LC). Responding to a question, Azam Swati said after consulting his party chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, he has informed in writing to Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani about the whole situation.
He said that NIO director general Dr M Rabbani, Nawazish Ali and Dr Tabriz were suspended after conducting an inquiry against them whereas he has requested the premier to take action against Naeem Sarfraz as he was not from his ministry. He said he would be more than happy if the Chief Justice took a suo moto notice of this shipping scandal and expose actual people involved with intentions to embezzle millions of rupees.