PHOTO: FILE
ISLAMABAD: The top court has rejected a Chinese company’s plea to allow it to participate in the bidding process of the 4,320MW run-of-the-river Dasu Hydro project on the Indus River.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali had been seized with the petition of Messers Power Construction Corporation of China Limited (PCCCL) seeking a direction for the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) not to open the result of the pre-qualification of the bidding for the construction of the project in Kohistan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Unmet demands: Kohistan landowners forcibly stop work near Dasu Dam
The hydropower project is being developed in two stages: Stage 1 includes installation of six hydropower units each of which will produce 360MW power, while in Stage 2, nine additional 360MW units will be installed.
Additional Attorney General Rana Waqar informed the court that the World Bank has the authority to approve the name of any company for the bidding of the dam and added it had asked the federal government to reject the Chinese company’s plea to include it in the bidding process.
Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed asked: whether that was a “request” or a “direction”. “Is it the government’s stance that if a foreign company would invest in Pakistan and the government would not take any action against it?
Represented by Advocate Salman Aslam Butt, the petition moved by the Chinese firm had challenged in the Supreme Court the June 29, 2016, intra-court appeal in the Lahore High Court in which the petitioner’s request to suspend the operation of its disqualification from the bidding process was rejected.
Butt urged the court to issue a notice to the World Bank to which Justice Azmat said when the World Bank is not a party in the case, then how they could issue a notice to it.
Unmet demands: Kohistan landowners forcibly stop work near Dasu Dam
In 2014, Wapda had announced undertaking the project on the Indus River located at Dasu Town. The project is partly funded by the International Development Association (IDA) – an organisation forming part of the World Bank Group. The IDA has approved the financing of Stage-1 of the project with a credit of $588.4 million.
Shahzada Mazhar, representing Wapda, contended that they (the Chinese company) are not the citizens of Pakistan; therefore they couldn’t enjoy equal rights under Article 25 of the Constitution. He pleaded that they don’t have any case and the guidelines protected in the agreement.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 26th, 2016.
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