Federal Minister for Industries and Production, Ghulam Murtaza Khan Jatoi has ordered an inquiry into "fraud" in the land procurement tender by NIP/PIDC for Special Economic Zone to be established in Islamabad under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), well-informed sources told Business Recorder.
Jatoi, sources said, had received a complaint from one of the bidders, Syed Fayyaz Hussain Gilani, who claimed that he was deliberately "deceived" by the officials of Pakistan Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC)/ National Industrial Parks Development and Management Company (NIPD&MC).
According to the tender floated in July, NIPD&MC had expressed its intention to purchase land to develop industrial park in Islamabad/ Rawalpindi area adjacent to M- 2 Motorway. According to the company, the proposed land should preferably be located between Thalian interchange and Chakri. The purpose of the project is to provide a platform for organized and systematic industrial growth in the area. The area required for the project is approx. 500-800 acres. Original owners/third-party owners had been asked for relevant documents and invited to bid if they wished to sell their land to NIP. The Financial Proposal was on per unit Cost ie acre (8- Kanal / 43,560 Sq. ft.)
The complainant , in his letter to the Minister for Industries and Production, had submitted that he intended to take part in a tender issued by 'National Industrial Parks Development & Management Company' which was advertised on July 18, 2017 regarding acquisition of land for industrial park between Thallian and Chakri interchanges, Rawalpindi. The date for submission was August 4, 2017. According to the complainant, the land he intended to offer met most of the criteria of the tender requirements and at a reasonable price.
Explaining the background, he said that on the day of submission he faced many difficulties due to PIDC's due negligence, intentional or unintentional, as they had set up many hurdles which were the following: (i) in the advertisement the address was 'PIDC office 3rd floor, SEDC building, 5-A Constitution Avenue'. On arriving at Constitution Avenue an hour earlier, he tried to locate the building through Google, and continuously called their landline numbers (both Karachi and Islamabad) which were not being attended. He then found the number of Shujaat (an employee of PIDC based in Islamabad) who picked up the phone but who claimed he did not know where his office was as he was dependent on his driver for this purpose. He then found the office located in a building named 'Software technology Park' also known as STP which falls in Sector F5-1. A wrong and incomplete address was mentioned, a mistake by the tendering authority; (ii) after arriving five minutes prior to the tender time of 2:30, an employee informed him that Rizwan (the concerned official) , was out and they had informed him of his arrival and he was instructed to wait. After waiting for twenty minutes he arrived and said that "I was late for the tender and he wouldn't accept my documents". The complainant claimed that he was on time and in fact was waiting for him. While he was relaying this information another party entered the office and introduced himself by the name of Chaudhry Mushtaq Ahmed and was immediately taken to the committee room where Shujaat and Rizwan entertained his request for acceptance of documents "to which I protested"; (iii) the foregoing reveals that his inability to take part in the tender was because of intentional or unintentional discrepancies in the tender notice itself. Moreover, he failed to comprehend the non-attendance of his telephone calls by the tender receipt office itself and inability of an office employee to give him directions to the office.
The complainant has requested the Minister to re-tender land procurement at any appropriate future date so that all the interested parties can take part in the process. The sources said, Minister for Industries and Production has directed Secretary Industries and Production, Khizer Hayat Gondal to hold an inquiry to verify the accusations and submit a report to him. PIDC and NIPD&MC are already facing inquiries on mismanagement, land allocation in industrial parks and corruption.
The appointment of incumbent CEO of NIPD&MC, who is an employee of Engineering Development Board (EDB), has been made in violations of rules. However, no action has been taken by the Ministry to remove him so far.