IHC to hear plea against PPRA appointments

Hearing fixed for today

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday (today) will hear a case against alleged irregularities in the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA).

A single-member bench comprising Justice Miangul Hasan Aurangzaib is expected to conduct proceedings.

The secretaries of law, defence, water and power, energy, communication, finance, and housing along with PPRA and its board members have been listed as the respondents in the petition.

Engineer Zubair, who filed the petition through his counsel Hafiz Arfat, stated that the transparency in deployment in PPRA can save billions.

He asserted that members of the PPRA board had committed irregularities in the board’s meeting while no proper way was defined for recruiting PPRA board members as well as the managing director (MD).

The petitioner demanded the court halt the deployment of related officials in PPRA from civil bureaucracy. He further called for amendments in the PPRA rules.

He argued for the deployment of board members who are well-known professionals of good repute in their respective fields. The MD, he said, should be appointed through advertisement in the press as per rules and regulations.

The petitioner further contended that the finance and cabinet divisions and Finance Additional Secretary Dr Arshad should be stopped from interfering in the authority’s matter.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 9^th, 2020.