Mohmand Dam construction: Opp points to conflict of interest in contract

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Parliamentary Leader in the Senate Senator Sherry Rehman Wednesday questioned transparency in giving contract for construction of Mohmand Dam to son of Advisor to the Prime Minister on Commerce Razak Dawood.

“How the contract was given to son of the Advisor to Prime Minister on Commerce. Whether it was not a conflict of interest,” she questioned while talking to newsmen here at Parliament House.

Senator Rehman said Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) was denied contract with the argument that this contract was given after a technical bid in which only one company qualified. How is it possible that country’s experienced contractor FWO was denied, she questioned.

“It’s not a tap but the dam worth over Rs309 billion and it should be made clear that how the FWO and China’s largest company was disqualified which have experience of construction of dams,” she said adding that it should be told what experience Descon company has for construction of dams.

She said it was an important and strategic project of the country questioning how it is possible that only one bidder qualified for this project. “It was a match fixing and conflict of interest,” she said. Senator Rehman said NAB should also review and examine this scam. “It is ‘Ghazab corruption ki Ajab Khani’,” she remarked.

Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, spokesman to PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, has said Prime Minister Imran Khan has yet again made a U-turn by appointing his advisor’s company as the firm in charge of Mohmand Dam’s construction.

“The federal government’s reality has been exposed through this act and this is a proof of the government’s inability to stay true to its promises,” he said.

Senator Khokhar said this act of “Prime Minister select’ Imran Khan demands attention from NAB. “The appointment of Razaq Dawood’s company is unfair and proves how biased the PTI government is,” he said.