The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked whether the contribution of a 15 percent amount in the construction of Stage-I of the Dasu Hydropower Project gives the World Bank a veto power to oust any bidder from the project. Chief Justice of Pakistan Anwar Zaheer Jamali made these observations while resuming the hearing of a matter relating to bidding evaluation process for award of a contract to start civil works for construction of Stage-I of the Dasu Hydropower Project.
M/s Power Construction Corporation of China had submitted an application for the construction of the project on May 28, 2015 to which the WAPDA submitted its report to the World Bank for evaluation of the bidders and conditionally pre-qualified the Corporation along with several other bidders.
However, the World Bank rejected the Corporation''s name as a participant for pre-qualification whereupon WAPDA issued the notices to the Corporation on February 12, 2016 disqualifying it from the bidding process. M/s Power Construction Corporation of China challenged the Wapda''s decision before the Lahore High Court which rejected the plea on grounds that the court lacks jurisdiction to hear such petitions.
The Corporation later invoked the Supreme Court jurisdiction in the matter, filing an appeal against the LHC''s verdict. On Wednesday, appearing before a three-member bench led by the Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali on behalf of the Corporation, former Attorney General for Pakistan Salman Aslam Butt contended that his client is the largest construction company which is at the top of the hydro project construction all over the world.
It is important to mention that Wapda on July 11, 2016 had received bids for main civil works (MW-01 and MW-02) of Stage-1 of the project which were opened by a Committee headed by the WAPDA Member (Water) Muhammad Shoaib Iqbal at the WAPDA House Lahore. However, the counsel for Wapda, Shehzad Mazhar, had assured the apex court that the Authority will not finalize bidding evaluation process about award of a contract for construction of Dasu dam main civil works of Stage-I of the project till final adjudication.
While commencing his arguments in the case, Butt said that the World Bank should provide a 10 percent fund in addition to five percent partial credit guarantee for the benefit of WapdA in the project. Butt further pleaded that his client was once pre-qualified on the condition that the subsidiary companies identified in the clarification must be assigned the works and the key staff from these subsidiaries be identified.
Butt pleaded that it was done by his client, saying as such there was no justification to reject his client company''s name from the list of pre-qualified bidders. He categorically said that Wapda should not exercise its power under the directions of International Development Association (IDA), terming it whimsical and arbitrary and a violation of the due process of the law. Later, the bench re-listed the matter for hearing for August 25 (today).