PHC annuls award of project contract to foreign firm

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has annulled the award of contract of the 215 megawatts Asrit-Kedam hydropower project to a foreign firm against the set rules and policy by the provincial government.

A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Muhammad Ayub Khan declared the contract of the power project to a foreign firm without fulfilling of the legal process as void. It observed that the contract had been directly awarded to the firm against the rules and policy.

The bench passed the order in a writ petition of a company Younas Brothers. It had sought cancellation of the contract of the small dam to a foreign firm against the rules.

During the hearing, Barrister Mudassir Ameer, counsel for the petitioner, submitted that the petitioner’s company had prepared the feasibility report of the said hydro-power project in 2007 after proper approval of the Pakistan Investment Board.

He submitted that due to terrorism in Swat district, the company was not able to continue work on the project and stopped the work till the restoration of peace at Kalam.

The counsel argued that when peace was restored to the area, the provincial government without any issuing any tender for the bidding process, handed over the contract to a foreign firm against the rules.

He pointed out that under the provincial government’s own policy, the tender is to be issued for receiving quotations from national and international firms is to be collected for the award of the contract, but in this project the contract had been awarded to the foreign firm without any tender.

The petitioner requested the court to declare the contract as void and direct the government to award the contract under the policy.

He added that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had signed a Memorandum of Understating (MoU) with Korea’s state-owned M/S Korea South-East Power Company, Koen, for the construction of 215 megawatts Asrit-Kedam Hydropower project. The petitioner said that the representatives of the KP government and Koen had signed the MoU in the presence of the then KP chief minister Pervez Khattak against the policy and in a shady and unfair way.