• NHA criticised for awarding contract to joint venture in violation of rules
• Two other projects completed by same JV also on lawmakers’ radar for ‘irregularities’

ISLAMABAD: Several parliamentary committees have raised serious concern over an international road-building project funded by the Asian Development Bank, citing alleged collusive practices and ghost tendering among other irregularities by the National Highway Authority in the award of the project.

The standing committees of the Senate and the National Assembly on Economic Affairs Division (EAD) and communications, as well as a sub-committee of the Senate’s communication panel, have reviewed the contract for the past four months. The NHA, however, did not provide documents to these committees to contest allegations against it.

The Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (Carec) Tranche-III project is worth Rs170 billion and has invited parliamentary scrutiny, particularly due to its award to a firm that had been disqualified by the NHA over two years ago.

Documents seen by Dawn indicated that one of the firms in the joint venture (JV) was disqualified by the highway authority in 2023 for failing to complete the 62km Lodhran-Multan section, but it was still allowed to submit technical and financial bids for the Tranche-III project.

The committee maintained that the firm was currently involved in litigation related to the Multan-Lodhran project. It further observed that the Tranche-III contracts were initially awarded based on auditor sheets without verifying the credentials of the firms involved.

The standing committees observed that despite violations of Public Procurement Authority (PPRA) rules pointed out by the parliamentary bodies, the NHA chose to keep the award of the contract intact with the controversial JV.

In the Aug 2 meeting of the Senate EAD committee, the NHA was given a final 15-day deadline to come up with all documents required by the committee, which is expected to give its verdict in the next meeting.

Two more projects on radar

Besides the Carec project, two other projects in the portfolio of the same JV invited the scrutiny of lawmakers. The panel held a detailed discussion on the Gilgit-Shandur motorway project, noting that there were several irregularities and signs of collusive practices in the project.

Referring to the ‘Hanzol Hydropower Project’, the committee revealed that the work order was issued on May 7, 2024, and the work was completed on May 7, 2025. However, the bid documents for the project were submitted in September 2024, and the same project was included in the audit reports for the financial year 2023–24.

In its recent report, PPRA endorsed the findings of the standing committees and directed the NHA to provide the relevant documents regarding the financial and technical strength of the joint venture.

Although the NHA officials have agreed to provide all the relevant documents to the committee and PPRA, under the relevant rules, the contractors cannot submit any new documents to the NHA that were not part of the bid documents.

In one of such meetings, the Senate body termed it an open-and-shut case of corruption and directed the NHA to wrap up the whole bidding process and start a new.

The Central Asian Regional Economic Cooperation Program is an ADB-supported initiative which was created in 1997 to encourage economic cooperation among countries in the Central Asian region. Tranche-I, II and III road projects are underway or have been completed. Tranche-III has four lots as Lot-1 (58km road from Rajanpur to Jampur), Lot-2 (64km from Jampur to DG Khan), Lot-3 (112km from DG Khan to Tibbi Qaisrani), and Lot-4 (96km from Tibbi Qaisrani to DI Khan). Participating countries are Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmen­istan, and Uzbekistan.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2025