F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif on Friday asked for a probe into the recent awarding of the Mohmand dam contract to Descon – a company owned by Advisor to the PM for Commerce Abdul Razzak Dawood.
Addressing the Lower House, the PML-N president requested NA Speaker Asad Qaiser to debate the issue in the Parliament.
“I have no personal grudges against Dawood but the nation deserves to know how the government is spending treasury money,” said the opposition leader.
The chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) recalled that the previous Parliament had discussed the construction of the Mohmand Dam under the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) ruling. He pointed out that a single-bid for the tender was against the PPRA laws.
“Awarding the contract to a sitting government official is a conflict of interest. A committee should be formed to review the process and submit a report within a week. A contract worth Rs300 billion was awarded on a single bid.”
Meanwhile, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Ali Muhammad Khan presented a resolution for the constitution of an ethics committee to amend National Assembly Rules, 2007.
The committee, to be headed by the NA speaker, will be tasked to probe and take action against ‘unethical’ attitude displayed by legislators inside and outside the assembly premises. It will submit a quarterly report on the overall behaviour of NA members.
Qaiser also apologised to PML-N Ahsan Iqbal for barring him from attending the assembly session on Thursday. Iqbal had been asked to leave the hall when asked to show his membership restoration notification.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had suspended memberships of 332 parliamentarians who failed to submit their details of assets. The members included Iqbal, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry, Deputy Speaker National Assembly Qasim Suri and State Minster for Interior Shehryar Afridi.
According to Iqbal, the speaker was not informed that the ECP had cleared his name.
