Violating rights: TIP objects to PQA’s condition

Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) has raised a number of objections to Port Qasim Authority’s (PQA) expression of interest (EOI) for establishment of coal terminals. In a letter dated April 14, 2014, the TIP Chairman Sohail Muzaffar has said the PQA has cited a condition, violating the constitutional and contractual rights of bidding firms. He says the condition debars any firm with more than 50% court/arbitration decisions against the firm. “This amended condition is wrong…all business houses are involved in hundreds of litigation, filed by them or facing cases against them, and if this condition is not deleted, not a single party will be able to qualify in the coal terminal,” he writes. He says the Port Qasim Authority has also failed to specify the range in annual tonnage capacity of the terminal, location of the terminal and the number of terminals, apart from not uploading the prequalification documents as well as RFP for consultants.


Published in The Express Tribune, April 17^th, 2014.