SHC reserves order on contractor’s plea for payment of Rs8.4mn

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday reserved its judgment on a petition by a contractor who was hired to renovate the mausoleum of Pakistan Peoples Party's (PPP) late chairperson Benazir Bhutto’s and has since alleged non-payment of funds by the provincial government.

Petitioner Rakhial Shah submitted in the petition that he was awarded the contract to renovate BB’s mausoleum as well as court buildings in Kashmore which he completed as per satisfaction of concerned authorities. However, despite completion of the renovation work he had not been paid an outstanding amount of Rs8.4 million.

According to the petitioner, the government owed him Rs8 million for the mausoleum and Rs443,000 for work done in district Kashmore.

The petitioner alleged that the funds meant for the renovation project had been misappropriated by the officers, therefore, he was being made to run from pillar to post for his due payments.

The court was pleaded to order the chief secretary, the works and services secretary and others to clear all dues of the petitioner at the earliest.

Additional Advocate General Ghulam Mustafa Mahesar along with the chief engineer of Works and Service Department appeared before the court acknowledged that the petitioner had carried out renovation work as mentioned in the petition.

The AAG said the government had appointed an inquiry committee headed by the secretary works and services department on the court’s directives to probe allegations contained in the petition.

The provincial officer maintained that the inquiry body, which comprised chief engineer district Sukkur and superintending engineer and executive engineer district Larkana, had visited the sites to inspect the work, and checked the official record of outstanding payment.

Barrister Mahesar contended that the provincial government had duly paid the dues to the petitioner and owed only Rs443,000, as per the official records. The government was willing to make the remaining payment, he assured.

The law officer pleaded to the court to dismiss the petition, arguing that matters involving disputed facts could not be decided by the court in its constitutional jurisdictions under the article 199.

He added that the petitioner could avail remedy by invoking original jurisdictions of the court by filing a lawsuit to claim damages, if any, from the government.

On the other hand, Advocate Ibadul Hasnain, petitioner’s counsel, disputed the law officer’s submissions. He insisted that the authorities still owed Rs8 million to the petitioner and pleaded the court to order them to clear all outstanding dues at the earliest.

The court after hearing the arguments of the counsel reserved the judgment to announce later.