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ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court made it clear on Thursday that it had the right to dissect the deal under which 75 locomotives were to be procured from China even if the government had waived the prerequisites to ensure transparency.
“The power of judicial review is available with the Supreme Court and we can look into the deal,” observed Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry who heads a two-judge bench which has taken notice of massive corruption in Pakistan Railways.
“Everyone should listen loud and clear, we will never allow selling of the country’s asset just like that by doing away with the transparency factor,” the chief justice said.
He asked Railways Chairman Javed Ahmed why had he ignored the requirement of transparency? “Are you trying to help someone? Law is law and stealing is stealing, big or small.”
The observation came when former railways minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed whose request to become a party in the case has been accepted by the court, accused the PR authorities of trying to influence top government officials to bypass the requirement of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority 2004 which ensured transparency in public dealings.
“They had requested Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to condone the PPRA rules, but he suggested placing the matter before the Economic Coordination Committee of the cabinet for seeking approval for waiving the rules,” Sheikh Rashid said.
He said the railways had failed to cancel the deal, although it had been paying an interest of Rs125,000 a day to Exim Bank for the past two years, adding that far superior locomotives were available in other countries, including Spain.
The railways chairman confirmed the payment of interest, but said the $105.2 million agreement for manufacturing 75 locomotives had been reached with Dangfang Electric Corporation China in Dec 2008 through international competitive bidding. But the letter of credit could not be opened because of a restraining order issued by the Lahore High Court on a petition challenging the deal.
However, he said the case had been dismissed and the LC was likely to be opened by the end of this month under which 25 locomotives would be procured as completely built units (CBU) and the remaining 50 would be manufactured partly at the Locomotive Factory in Risalpur in association with Chinese experts over the next two years.
The court asked the railways authorities to consider carrying out a forensic audit to ascertain lapses and the scale of corruption.
Sheikh Rashid said that because of the court notice the railways had removed Samiullah Gandapur, a blue-eyed grade-18 officer who had been elevated to the grade-20 post of secretary purchases at the behest of the railways minister.
But, he regretted, the freight business was still going to the private sector in the absence of the railway cargo service without which the organisation could not sustain itself. He said that 40 to 50 trains had come to a grinding halt because of the use of substandard lubricating oil which badly damaged locomotive crankshafts worth Rs10 million.
Referring to the sale of 90 tons of silver worth millions of rupees as scrap for a mere Rs28,000, the railways chairman said he had recommended that the matter be referred to the National Accountability Bureau, adding that the entire bulk of scrap was still with the railways while precious metals like copper, brass and steel had been taken back. The Federal Investigation Agency is investigating the matter, but it is pending before the LHC.
“We have seen the working of FIA and will now call the NAB chairman to ascertain what credibility he enjoys,” the chief justice said. He ordered Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq to provide details of the cases so that a request could be made to the LHC chief justice to decide the matter expeditiously in the interest of the nation.
The railways general manager presented a bleak picture about the state of affairs in his organisation which he said was facing a brain drain. “We need radical changes in rules, although massive corruption is also one of the major factors contributing to the collapse of railways,” he said.
