LAHORE, Dec 12: Justice Syed Zahid Husain of the Lahore High Court on Monday admitted for regular hearing a writ petition by a Pakistan-Malaysia joint company challenging a Punjab government decision through which it was barred from introducing the motor transport management information system project.

The petition, moved through advocate Syed Ali Sabtain Fazli, was admitted for hearing after the Punjab government failed to satisfy the court about the reasons for not granting the contract to the company, although it admitted that it (company) qualified for the contract being the lowest bidder.

The only reason the provincial government could cite was that the prices of different related items had risen between December 2004 and August 2005, and the contract on prices quoted by the company was no more feasible. The counsel stated that the government had not apprised the company of this reason.

The company, Iris-Rist, submitted in the petition that the Punjab Information Technology Department awarded it on Dec 10, 2004, the project for $120,000 after the bidding process for the purpose of regulating the motor transport sector under information technology, which included computerization of driving licences and issuing vehicles’ registration books on chip-based smart cards. The company submitted that it started working on the project after the approval by the provincial finance department.

However, the petition stated that nine months after the company was awarded the contract, the department secretary was transferred and the new boss issued the company a letter to renegotiate bidding terms along with another company, the CMC, which had earlier lost the bidding to the Iris-Rist. Later, the new secretary also involved the National Database Regulatory Authority (Nadra) asking it to give a presentation on Sept 7. Later, Nadra was allowed to stealthily start the work on the remaining part of the project before it was formally awarded to the authority.

The petitioner’s counsel submitted that Nadra was not qualified to equip the Punjab Excise and Taxation Department with the computer technology as was required for the project. The chip-based cards Nadra was supplying were inferior in quality to those being offered by the petitioner company. It was also higher in cost as the same card was available for Rs85, while Nadra was offering it for Rs100.

He submitted every public contract for procurement of services required transparency but the department demonstrated mala fide intentions and resorted to illegal act of involving an agency which was not even among the bidders. He requested the court to declare as unlawful the act of the department and order the Punjab government to restore the contract of the joint Pakistan-Malaysian company.