SHC sets aside IDEAS 2020 contract, orders fresh tendering

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday set aside the award of international defense exhibition and seminar (IDEAS) contract for the year 2020 to a private company and directed the federal government to initiate a de novo tendering process for the event or any such future events in due conformity with the Public Procurement Regulatory Ordinance and its rules.

The order came on a petition of Humera Imran who assailed the award of IDEAs contract for the years 2016, 2018 and 2020 to a private company on the grounds that the process and consequential award of the contract was incongruous with the mandatory requirements of the PPRO and the Public Procurement Rules 2004. The petitioner’s counsel Raza Rabbani submitted that Defence Export Promotion Organization (DEPO) was empowered to arrange defense exhibitions in Pakistan. He submitted that the contracts were awarded to the private companies after inviting tenders through public notices since 2000 to 2012-14.

He submitted that DEPO unilaterally decided to award the contract for IDEAS 2020 to a private company without issuing any tender or public notice and without a competitive bidding process as required under the law which amounted to misprocurement.

He argued that the departure from the law and the established norms of fair play, in the award of the contract, is a blatant invitation to corruption and nepotism and requested the court to declare the award of contract as illegal, unlawful and having no legal effect.

The DEPO's counsel Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur submitted that the petition was a mala fide and vengeful attempt to disrupt the otherwise lawful award of the contract because it was not awarded to the petitioner. He submitted that the ordinance and the rules did not apply since the award of the contract did not fall in public procurement. He further contended that even if the Ordinance and the Rules were applied to the contract then the exception for national security provided under Section 14(a) of the Rules shall be applicable and will have an overriding effect.

Talpur submitted that IDEAS is a matter of national security, being a defense exhibition, therefore, it is just and proper for the contract to be awarded by private negotiations so as not to share any sensitive information. He also submitted that IDEAS is an international exhibition held in Pakistan and is a matter of national prestige and it was improper to be called into question before the court, hence, the petition should be dismissed. The Deputy attorney general Liaquat Hussain Sheikh also relied upon the arguments advanced by the DEPO's counsel.

The SHC’s division bench headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar observed that the award of IDEAS events prior to the present contract was governed by the prescriptions of the ordinance and rules and the respondent counsel was unable to extrapolate on any grounds to maintain the award of the contract within the domains of national security and the DEPO has never applied for or received any benefit under the national security clause.

The court observed that the Supreme Court has already held in its judgment that judicial review cannot be denied in matters of contractual powers. The court observed that the process culminating in the award of the contract is prima facie repugnant to the provisions of the Rules 4, 12, 14, 20 and 21.

The court observed that process for award of IDEAs contract ought to have been in consonance with the fiat of the Ordinance and the Rules.

Disposing of the petition the court set aside the award of IDEAs 2020 contract and directed the federal government and DEPO to initiate a de novo tendering process for the said event and any such future events in due conformity with the ordinance and the rules.