PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has issued a stay order suspending work on two water schemes in Bannu district and directed the local deputy commissioner and the relevant Kaki tehsil municipal administration to respond to a petition, which challenged the contract over the alleged violation of rules.

A bench consisting of Justice Mohammad Ibrahim Khan and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim issued notices to the Bannu DC and Kaki TMA for response and directed them to maintain status quo on the matter until next hearing.

Pir Hameedullah Shah, lawyer for petitioner Shafiullah, a contractor, contended that the Kaki TMA had sought bids for water schemes through newspaper advertisements.

He said that his client had submitted a bid for two of the schemes in which the ratewas 10 per cent lower than the cost of schemes, while the bid of another contractor, Mohammad Younas, was 11 per cent lower than his client’s.

Notices issued as petitioner claims rules violated

The lawyer said that under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Public Procurement Regulatory Authority Rules, a bidder had to deposit two per cent bid security for participating in the auction.

He added that under the rules, if a bidder submits a bid, which was less than 10 per cent of the total cost, then he had to deposit additional eight per cent as bid security.

The counsel argued that contractor Mohammad Younas had to deposit eight per centcall securityunder the rules but he didn’t do so.

He added that the rules declared that if a contractor failed to deposit that bid security, then his two per cent security deposit had to be confiscated by the government, whereas the contract had to be awarded to the next lowest bidder.

The lawyer contended that the TMA had violated those rules and awarded the contract to Mohammad Younas. He said the cost of both schemes was Rs50 million. The counsel requested the court to declare that contract illegal and order its award to his client.

CONVICTED: A local court has convicted a man on the charge of possessing crystal meth (ice drug) and awarded him 10 years rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs500,000.

It also declared that in case of the non-payment of fine, the convict should serve one- year more jail term.

Additional district and sessions judge Mohammad Faisal pronounced that the prosecution had proved its case against the accused, Faheem, a resident of Takhtbhai area in Mardan district, while the evidence on record connected him with the commission of the offence.

The accused was arrested by officials of the Paharipura police station on Aug 10, 2021, and was charged under Section 11-B of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Control of Narcotics Substance Act.

The state prosecutor contended that the police had recovered a shopping bag with 220 grammes of crystal meth (ice drug) from the possession of the accused.

He argued that the chemical examination report and the statements of prosecution witnesses clearly proved the guilt of the accused.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2022