Ministry rebuts news item

Islamabad: Apropos to the news published in Daily The News of December 01, 2018, titled “ Little-known company granted govt contract flouting rules”, the Spokesperson of the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and HRD has strongly rebutted the story and termed it as baseless, concocted and misleading.

The spokesperson in a statement has stated that neither a privileged information regarding data of overseas Pakistanis has been provided to a third party nor confidential reports have been shared with anyone. Moreover, the ministry has not hired any third party through contracts for any project. It is further established that no contracts have been awarded to any such party as mentioned in the story. Therefore, it is reiterated that no PPRA rules have been bypassed, the spokesperson concluded.

Waseem Abbasi adds: This correspondent stand by his story that an MoU was signed between a little known company “Brando Marketing” and the National Information Technology Board (NITB) in November 2018 without any tender. The story was based on a letter by international anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) to Minister for Information Technology Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui and copied to the Chief Justice of Pakistan. The content of the story was based on that letter written by former Supreme Court Judge Justice Zia Perwez who is a trustee of TIP. It is strange that instead of Ministry of IT, the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis is clarifying the whole story terming it 'baseless', 'misleading,' while the story talks about MoU between the private company and the attached department of IT Ministry. Is it due to the fact that the Brando Marketing is owned by Farhan Javed, social media manager of an aide of the prime minister.

Secondly, by virtue of the MoU which has been confirmed by both the ministry and the company, the Brando marketing will be “Official Digital Media Partner” of government of Pakistan which includes all ministries including the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis, so there is no need for the company to sign a separate contract with each ministry.

Moreover, The News carried out further research after reading the clarification and found out that Association of Overseas Pakistanis (AOP) a non-profit organisation which is also run by Frahan Javed of Brando Marketing has claimed on their official social media page that the AOP is “official channel to facilitate overseas Pakistanis here in Pakistan”.

Moreover, the clarification by the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development failed to answer following questions. 1- Was an MoU not signed between Brando Marketing and the NITB making the uknown company the "Official Digital Media Partner of the Government of Pakistan"?

2- Did TIP not write a letter to Minister for IT to probe the MoU between Brando Marketing and NITB without any tender?

3- Did the letter not point out that the AOP that is also a partner of Brando marketing should be probed for having access to data of Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis?

4- Is it not a fact that Brando Marketing’s CEO Farhan Javed is also a social media manager of the PM's aide.

5- Does he not manage the social media accounts of the prime minister and other cabinet members?

6- Why instead of issuing a clarification a through probe is not launched as per the TIP demand to prove the allegations wrong?

7- Were PPRA rules not violated by signing of MoU between an unknown company and the Government of Pakistan?

8- Will the MoU not boost the business of private company being "Official Digital Media Partner of Government of Pakistan" and give it unfair advantage over other IT companies doing business in the same area?