Islamabad Safe City Project: Not a very ‘transparent’ city project

SC says it can ask govt to ensure complete transparency.

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court (SC) cannot ensure open competition in the award of the $233.7 million “Safe City Project” but it can ask the government to ensure complete transparency.

This was said by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Monday in response to a remark made by a petitioner seeking the SC to enforce open competition under Article 80 of the constitution. The article guarantees that the federal government will make public a “statement of estimated receipts and expenditures of the Federal Government for that year”.

Security cameras and CCTVs will be installed all over the city and other security measures will be taken under the project, which has been awarded to a Chinese company.

Justice Muhammad Sair Ali and Justice Ghulam Rabbani weres other members of the bench that resumed hearing of a plea filed by a journalist named Shahid Orakzai. Orakzai had alleged that the equipment for the project was being purchased at three times the market price.

Justice Chaudhry said that the SC had already set precedence by asking the government to ensure complete transparency in the Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) case, which was a multi-million dollar scam uncovered in 2010.

Justice Ali remarked that difficulties in the case arose when a new contract was signed and the petitioners approached the SC without adequate evidence. “Such pleas are going to affect commercial activity in the country,” he observed.

NADRA’s lawyer Kazim Raja requested for adjournment of the case, saying he had received the records of the case only a few days back. He said he would need some time to go over all the necessary documents. NADRA entered the agreement with the Chinese company under the authorisation of the interior ministry. The authority’s database will be used for almost all aspects of the project.

During the previous proceedings, Attorney General of Pakistan, Maulvi Anwarul Haq, had apprised the bench that project was not finalised.

Afnan Kundi, interior ministry’s lawyer, maintained that the contract had no binding effect and they would maintain transparency at all costs.

The court showed its reservation on the cost of the project, saying if Karachi could execute a similar project in $24 million, there was no justification for a small city like Islamabad to require about ten times the amount.

The next hearing will be on July 4.



Published in The Express Tribune, June 29^th, 2011.