ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court (IHC) has disposed of a case against the Modular Operation Theatre Project of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims).

It is worth mentioning that the administration of Pims had taken the initiative to upgrade existing old facilities of operation theatres and modular operation theatres (MOT). This, as per details, would help in the creation of an infection-free environment during surgeries.

According to the Hospital Director Dr Khalid Masud, tender for establishment of new and advanced modular operation theatres was advertised on April 24, 2022.

“A total of four firms participated in the tender. One firm was technically disqualified, on the grounds of non compliance and fake documents submitted. The rest of them were qualified for financial opening and the lowest quoted tender was awarded to a company as per Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules,” he said.

He said that a firm filed a petition in IHC claiming that its grievances were not addressed for the technical disqualification.

“Consequently, IHC issued notices to all parties including Pims. The court gave full chance to the company to prove its allegation. However, after hearing the parties, the case was dismissed,” Dr Masud said.

“In a constitutional challenge brought against a procurement process, the court only undertakes a rational-basis review to consider whether or not the decision-making process of the procuring agency suffers from any arbitrariness, illegality, irrationality or procedural impropriety and/or mala-fide. In the instant case, the petitioner has failed to establish that the procurement in question suffers from any such infirmity and consequently, this petition is without merit and is dismissed subject to a cost of Rs50,000 [each] payable by the petitioner [to two respondents],” the judgment stated.

Dr Masud said that the petitioner has been directed by the court to pay Rs100,000 to two respondents within a period of 30 days.

“The petitioner is also blacklisted from PPRA Punjab for one year against poor performance in Jinnah Hospital Lahore,” he said.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2022