Senate panel for following law in award of contracts in Fata

ISLAMABAD: The Senate Committee on States and Frontier Regions (Safron) on Monday took strong exception to directions to political agents recently to decline giving contracts to civilian contractors in the name of criminal and anti state activities without recourse to legal procedure

The issue came up in the meeting of the Committee when special invitee Senator Farhatullah Babar pointed to August 2016 letter of 45 Army Engineers Division based in Peshawar conveying the instructions.

The meeting was attended by Senator Ahmad Hasan, Senator Aurangzeb, and special invitees Senator Farhatullah Babar and Qaiser Jamal MNA.

The Senate Standing Committee on States and Frontier Regions in its meeting on Monday has decided to take opinion of Law Division, Ministry of Finance, Federal Board of Revenue and Fata Secretariat on the matter of collection of cess and its utilisation in Fata. The Committee decided to call all stakeholders in the next meeting to take their input on whether collection of cess in Fata is legal or it is another name of double taxation.

Criticising the move, Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the arbitrary instructions had opened new avenues of corruption by denying participation in development projects on the pretext of national security arbitrarily, without due process of law. “It is cruel and unjust to deny contracts to civilians without specific charge, without trial in a court of law to prove anti state allegations and without the right of appeal to the accused,” he added.

He said this will further increase resentment and sense of deprivation among tribesmen who are already marginalised and deprived.

He also criticised the existing system of collection of taxes, cess, levies and rahdari by the political agents as "arbitrary, illegal and used as a tool for corruption involving everyone along the ladder. The poor people of Fata are required to pay illegal tax on transportation of every item of daily use including wheat, animals, cement, and marchandise. “It has become a lucrative business for some and people now openly complain that the check posts are being auctioned as money minting machines,” he said.

He said that political agents should be provided a specific amount in the budget and the illegal practice of fund collection from poor residents should be discontinued.  He said that even the Governor had no powers to allow political agents to raise money through such illegal practices.

He said that Fata Reforms Committee had also recognised the permit and rahdari system as source of corruption and recommended its abolition. The Senate Committee then directed that a work plan be prepared to implement within 3 months the recommendations of Fata reforms committee to abolish the permit and rahdari system and instead provide budgetary allocation to political agents for meeting operational expenses which should also be audited. 

The Committee also heard MNA Qaiser Jamal on consultation process with the concerned parliamentarians for the annual development funds.  After hearing DC FR Dera Ismail Khan, Acting Secretary Safron and Fata Secretariat and the MNA, the Committee decided to get a report by the Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate of Fata Secretariat on the matter of miscommunication and non-compliance of some of the projects.