LAHORE, Feb 6: The Punjab Assembly (PA) on Friday challenged a contract, signed by the previous provincial government with the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) and a private foreign firm, which deprives the house of its power to legislate.

The chair, being held by Deputy Speaker Rana Mashhud, said he would never allow any “bad contract” to restrict the house from its function.

A heated debate on the issue ensued when Maj Abdul Rehman Rana (retired) tabled a privilege motion questioning the constitutional status of a road building contract with a private company and the FWO that barred legislation affecting any of its terms.

The mover drew the attention of the house towards a contract signed in 2003 between the Punjab government and a foreign firm in partnership with FWO to build Lahore-Faisalabad Expressway on a BOT (built, operate and transfer) basis.

The contract, signed by the then the C & W secretary and FWO DG Maj-Gen Shahid Nawaz was declared a secret document since the FWO was a 60 per cent partner in it.

The mover alleged that he had faced difficulties in obtaining its copies, while he was also being pressured for the last one year to withdraw his privilege motion. He said it breached not only the privilege of the house but also deprived it of its constitutional function.

He quoted one of its clauses that "Punjab government undertakes not to take any action, administrative or legislative, affecting terms of the contract".

He questioned the constitutional status of the clause which, he said, attacked the very function for which parliament was created and elections were held.

He demanded a ruling from the chair to declare such agreements unconstitutional and hence null and void. He demanded the house legislate to invalidate all such contracts and prevent this practice in future.

The mover asked how a public document could be kept secret and added that for the last one year voters of his constituency were ridiculing him on his failure to do just a simple job of curbing the toll tax overcharging.

Giving more details of the contract, he said, as against its original cost of Rs2 billion, the project was completed at a huge cost of Rs4.5 billion.

According to the agreement, the contractors could generate Rs82 billion as profit before handing it over to the Punjab government.

“How could a profit of Rs82 billion could be earned on just a Rs2 billion investment?” he asked.

He said thousands of motorists were being overcharged since every a car had to pay a toll tax of Rs100 and a truck Rs900 for 100 kilometers travel.

He said a five-member committee of the house had already pointed out loopholes in the contract under which they were empowered to raise toll tax annually and transfer the maintenance cost on to the provincial government.

He said the FWO was sent many complaints against overcharging, but to no avail.

The chair ruled that Punjab Assembly’s writ had been challenged through the contract. He said he would not let any “bad contract” restrain the house from legislation.

The motion was kept pending till next Wednesday after Law Minister Rana Sanaullah assured the house to hold a meeting of all parliamentarians and the contractors, both the foreign firm and the FWO, to see if the contract was being violated.

Acknowledging that a contract against constitutional or public interests could be taken up for rectification by the house, he argued that the fact should also be kept in mind that “we have to give incentives to foreign investors in shape of guarantees to protect their capital and profits since we are a poor country and can't undertake all development from our resources”.

He, however, said that he was not opposed to any legislation barring such kind of contracts in future.

The deputy speaker drew his attention towards the fact that the contract was against the supremacy of parliament.

Another PML-N member, Rana Afzal, said he was part of the scrutiny committee that had examined the contract. He confirmed that it protected the contractors from any legal action in any court of law.

He asked the validity of such contracts which jeopardised public interest and protected the contractors by making them above the law.

Rana Sana said the committee report was lying before the Chief Minister's Inspection Team and he would arrange a meeting of all five MPAs whose constituencies fell into the project and the department and contractors on Wednesday next and try to negotiate a cut in the toll tax in order to mitigate the public problems. PML-Q’s Shaikh Alauddin said legal action by any aggrieved person was the best way to deal with the issue since the Case Law defined by the Supreme Court in the Pakistan Steel Mills Privatisation Case that the judiciary could intervene into any contract against the public interest.

He said if the Punjab government dealt with the matter on its own, the contractors could file heavy damage suits against them.

But the mover, Maj Abdul Rehman, opposed litigation saying it would cost huge money and even then there was no guarantee it could provide relief to the masses since such litigations had previously failed.