ISLAMABAD: The co-chair of an inquiry committee formed to probe irregularities in the award of a contract for the construction of a multi-billion Legal Facilitation Centre at the Islamabad High Court (IHC) informed the high court that he was “intimidated” and subjected to discriminatory treatment for pursuing the probe.

Abdur Raziq Khattak is the co-chairman of the four-member inquiry committee of the housing ministry that was constituted to probe the illegalities in the Legal Facilitation Centre contract. The other members included Superintending Engineer Abdul Rashid Khan, who was also the chairman of the committee, Executive Engineer Hazoor Buksh and Division Accounts Officer Mohammad Ramzan.

This panel submitted its report before the IHC in response to a petition seeking action against the officials responsible for awarding the multi-billion rupee construction work to a ‘dummy’ company.

According to the report, the contractor did not provide requisite information about the Rs190 million mobilisation advance, which was released against the fake bank guarantee. Mr Khattak stated before the IHC that when he sought the record from the relevant authorities, he was “threatened of dire consequences” and was subject to frequent postings and transfers.

Report says contractor got technical approval in violation of PEC rules

The report said that the technical approval was granted in violation of the Pakistan Engineering Council’s rules.

It stated: “The executive engineer… [of PWD] with the connivance of all stakeholders…succeeded to get the work awarded to M/S City Trader without availability of approved structural drawings for such a massive mega project.”

The report also annexed the “fake experience certificates” of the ‘dummy’ company.

The company claimed it completed the construction of a multi-storey residential building project of the Gilgit-Baltistan government’s Public Works Department, in Khaplu, Ghanche, at a cost of Rs1.05 billion.

However, the said department denied any link to the company. Similarly, the Construction and Works Division of the Dera Ismail Khan also rejected the claim of the company of constructing the judicial complex at Chowk Shah Alamabad and said that the work order in the name of City Trader “was not issued” by them.

Petition against contract

The petition stated that the chief engineer (north) of the PWD awarded tenders for the construction of the IHC building to M/S Habib Rafiq Limited in the year 2015. The escalation charges over five years must have enhanced the completion cost many times (might be in billions of rupees) as compared to the cost originally conceived/awarded.

The petition stated that “in order to camouflage the ill deeds, the chief engineer (north) instead of revising the PC-1 of the IHC project, opted to frame another PC-1 with the title “Construction of Legal Facilitation Centre at Islamabad High Court Building”.

The initiation of another PC-1 during the pendency of the previous PC-1 was against the rules, it said, adding that the PWD got approved another PC-1 through the Departmental Development Working Committee (DDWP), costing Rs1.87bn

“This cost is likely to reach up to Rs3 billion, which means that the total cost of the project will touch Rs8 billion,” the petition said while referring to the IHC building project. The executive engineer (central) in connivance with the chief engineer prepared an estimate on the market rates instead of the Pak PWD Schedule of Rates 2022 in sheer violation of the rules, the petition added.

According to the petition, the PWD awarded the tender for “the construction of Legal Facilitation Centre at Islamabad High Court Building” to M/s City traders, a proxy firm of M/s Habib Rafiq Limited, as it was not technically possible to award the tender directly to the principal firm.

It claimed that M/s City trader was a dummy firm and at the time of tendering, it was not licenced by the Pakistan Engineering Council.

It got the licence about three months before the tender notice was issued on April 5 last year.

Moreover, the firm enclosed a bogus pay order/CDR amounting to Rs30 million claimed to be issued by ABL, G-8 Markaz Branch Islamabad as earnest money. When the committee referred the said CDR to the concerned bank, they declared it “bogus”.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2023