Chinese company challenges govt decision: LHC links fate of tendering process to its final verdict

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has linked the fate of a tendering process regarding design, manufacturing and supply of transmission lines of 500-kV for evacuation of power from K2/K3 nuclear power plants with the final decision of a petition by a Chinese firm.

Justice Ayesha A Malik passed the order on a petition M/s Sichuan Yiben Global Group, an entity, owned by the government of Republic of China. Barrister Husnain Ali Chaudhry, the counsel for the company, pleaded that the tender was primarily awarded to the petitioner-company, but later on it was awarded to a French company namely M/s Sediver SAS. He said the petitioner, being the highest bidder and having qualified the technical and financial bids, was entitled to the award of contract. However, he said, without following due process of law, the petitioner was informed through the impugned notification that the contract would be awarded to the respondent French company. The counsel argued that the petitioner was declared the highest bidder and all the formalities had been completed as per the requirements and to the satisfaction of the Ministry of Power Division and the NTDC. Therefore, he said, there was no reason to recall the award of the contract in favour of the petitioner. He further argued that on account of favouritism and with misuse of authority, the tender was revoked from the petitioner and was given to the French concern, which was Rs530 million higher in value, thus causing immense loss to the public exchequer. The counsel asked the court to set aside the impugned notification being illegal and direct the respondents to reinstate the initial approval of award granted to the petitioner. Justice Malik issued notices to the respondents for their replies by Sept 17. “In the meantime, any decision taken with reference to the issuance of award in favour of respondent No 7 is subject to the final outcome of thE petition,” the judge said.