LAHORE: Pakistan Railways (PR) should concentrate on its basic duty of providing safe, efficient and economical mode of transportation to passengers and carrying freight instead of indulging in “adventures” like running a club.

“Fresh tenders should be floated soon on `as and where is’ basis. The sooner the railways leases out the club the better it is, but the deal should be transparent this time,” former minister of state for railways Ishaq Khan Khaqwani told Dawn on Sunday.

Along with former federal finance minister Dr Mubashir Hasan, Mr Khaqwani had in 2011 drawn the attention of the Supreme Court towards the over Rs5 billion scam pertaining to leasing out the Pakistan Railway Golf Club (PRGC) to a consortium of Malaysian and Pakistani entrepreneurs.

The writ petition was submitted after the then 21-member subcommittee of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Railways reached the conclusion that the deal of giving away the Golf Club was not transparent.

“The NA subcommittee detected a big calculation mistake in the contract. The amounts the PR was to receive were not written in words but in figures. At one place a decimal was placed to show Rs7.45 million, whereas it should have been Rs74.5 million,” he said.

Quoting Supreme Court hearings record, Mr Khaqwani said the present lessee went to Malaysia in January 2001 to hire the services of a company to help them build the PR Golf Club. Some Malaysian firms showed interest and gave the present lessee their credentials, he added.

The then PR authorities got an advertisement published in one or two newspapers in July 2001, inviting private parties for developing and operating golf club. Since the response was poor, another advertisement was put up in September. However, not a single firm of repute participated in the bid.

“Maxcorp, as the present lessee was known then, attached the credentials of Malaysian company, showing it as their partners without their permission. The Malaysian firm later placed on record of the SC that they were only contractors hired to build the club’s infrastructure.

“Negotiations started between Maxcorp and a team comprising PR officers chosen by the then railways minister. Holding negotiations with a single party after opening of tenders was aimed at changing many contract terms. The land to be leased out was increase from 103 acres to 141 acres and the term of lease was increased from 33 years to 49 years, without even considering and realising that the whole financial equation changed with the introduction of last two factors .

“The question is that who divulged the information to the present lessee on the basis of which they went to Malaysia and how did only they know about the upcoming tender eight months before the first advertisement?” wondered Mr Khaqwani, who had resigned as deputy chief engineer from PR in 1989.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2016