Safe city project: TI request PM to observe SC’s verdict

Watchdog says transparency lies at the heart of every transaction entered into by, or on behalf of, a public body.

KARACHI:

Transparency International (TI) Pakistan has requested Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif not to allow any department in Pakistan to violate the Supreme Court orders to ensure transparency and fairness in contracts.

“Inviting of open bids is a prerequisite, as award of any unsolicited contract even to Frontier Works Organisation, National Logistics Cell and National Engineering Services Pakistan (Nespak) will be contempt of court, illegal, and void ab initio,” the TI says in a letter, addressed to the PM and the four chief ministers.

Drawing the PM’s attention to the Supreme Court judgment in the case of $126 million Islamabad Safe City Project, the watchdog says the apex court in the suo moto notice on the said project had held that transparency lies at the heart of every transaction entered into by, or on behalf of, a public body.

“It is an established fact that the SC order remains in force, until and unless it has been revisited and revoked by the court,” the letter says.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 6^th, 2014.