LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Monday issued notices to the federal government, the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) chairman and others on a petition challenging awarding of a contract for refurbishment of Mangla Dam allegedly to a blacklisted French company in violation of rules.

As the court took up the petition, Advocate Sheraz Zaka on behalf of the petitioner argued that awarding of the contract to Alstom Hydro was illegal in terms of Clause 59/1 of the contract. The company was a subsidiary of a blacklisted French company, Alstom SA, which was recently indicted on bribery charges by a US court and fined $770 million, he added.

The counsel further argued that in light of the superior court’s judgement, a contract worth Rs10 billion involving public money could not be awarded to a company whose parent company was debarred or blacklisted.

The lawyer asked the court to summon details of the contract and restrain the respondent authorities from awarding the contract to a company that was a subsidiary of a blacklisted company.

Justice Shams Mahmood Mirza heard the arguments and sought replies from the respondents by May 2.

Published in Dawn, April 5th, 2016