RAWALPINDI:
The army’s official contractors, Frontier Works Organisation (FWO), moved the court on Tuesday to get their sureties back from Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA).
They took the step after Punjab government shelved plans to construct Leh Expressway, initiated during the rule of former president Pervez Musharraf.
The FWO obtained a stay order from the civil court of Rawalpindi, stopping the RDA from encashing bank securities worth Rs436 million from National Bank of Pakistan. The amount was deposited in the name of the development authority in 2008 and was meant for the construction of Leh Expressway on Nullah Leh, which was also known as the Sheikh Rasheed Expressway.
The contractor has also urged the court to refer the dispute between the two organisations to an arbitrator, with the two parties’ consent.
The contracted company, FWO, in its plaint has maintained that they have dragged RDA into litigation after the provincial authorities unilaterally terminated the development project worth billions of rupees on January 13.
In an official letter in January, the RDA intimated the FWO about the termination of the project and asked it to submit a bill for outstanding liabilities, so that the project’s accounts can be finalised.
The contractor organisation told the court that the abrupt ending of the project caused a huge loss to FWO as the organisation had already paid money to the National Engineering Service of Pakistan (NESPAK) for the project. The engineering company was given the consultancy contract for the feasibility study and other ground works.
The plaintiff contractor was convinced of the importance and benefits of the project for the urban community of Rawalpindi. It tried to convince the RDA in January this year not to abandon the Sheikh Rasheed Expressway and Flood Channel Project as the abandonment would be a national loss, the petition said.
The contractor has also claimed around Rs3 billion under the heads of idling charges, delayed payments, hiring of accommodation for storage of reinforced earth material, utility bills, expenditure on mobilisation and site establishment and other expenditures.
The provincial authorities officially abandoned the project on November 24 last year. But RDA got an extension on the contractor’s bank sureties without informing the contractor which is against the terms of the contract, the plaintiff said.
Former president Musharraf in 2007 inaugurated the Rs18 billion project that was going to be executed by FWO under the supervision of the RDA.
A spokesperson of the RDA refused to comment on the case. He said, “As the matter is pending before the court, our legal response would be made in the court.”
Published in The Express Tribune, June 8th, 2011.
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