Daily Times

Pakistan being a Powerful Nuclear Armed Muslim State has always remained a thorn in the hearts of the powers, who yearn for keeping Muslims subjugated and the powers who strive for establishing hegemony in South Asia. The only impediment in achieving their desired objectives in the region is Pakistan Armed Forces. These detrimental forces have indulged in a perennial quest of weakening this Buttress of Pakistan’s Strength by interventions and indirect inferences in the shape of orchestrating maligning campaigns with the help of their abettors inside the country. These malignant offensives have gained momentum for the last one and half year, facilitated by a political cult, by exploiting vulnerabilities of the deprived and selected sections of the society. The hate injected manifested itself in the shape of failed attempts of disruption and physical attacks on the government and military installations.
Having failed the attempt, the never-ending spate of military bashing has shifted to targeting the military related welfare and support organizations. These organizations are discredited with unsubstantiated information and smear campaigns on few mainstream electronic media channels, reputed and renowned newspapers and social media platforms, without delving in to historical and on ground facts. Recently, as part of the ongoing defaming drive, a news story appeared in one of the leading newspapers, citing a petition in Islamabad High Court (IHC) by the representative of a private company, challenging the award of contracts to National Logistics Corporation (NLC) and Frontier Works Organization (FWO). These contracts were awarded by Capital Development Authority (CDA), Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA), Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) and National Highway Authority (NHA), without following due procedures, mandatory under Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) Rules, cited the petitioner.
The newspaper claimed that the petition has brought forth the amendment carried out by the Federal Government in Rule 42 of the Public Procurement Rules (Alternate Method of Procurement) by adding clause F (Direct Contracting with State Owned Entities), through a notification of Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO). This amendment is in violation of the Section 21 of PPRA Ordinance (Power to Exempt), which exempts tendering process in certain cases only and Section 21 of PPRA Ordinance itself is against the Article 25 of the Constitution of Pakistan (Equality of Citizens). The Federal Government has privileged state owned organizations over its competitors in private sector, which is discriminatory and in violation of the Constitution and principles of public procurement, hence, the relaxation given to NLC and FWO to be declared invalid.
Let us examine the award of contracts to NLC and FWO with the prism of laws and rules quoted by the petitioner and subsequently gauge these organizations in the context of their capability and worthiness.
Article 25 of the Constitution States that “All citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of law”. The Constitution lays out general guidelines for the legal system and provides a foundation for governance. Whereas, Law is a system of rules that are created, upheld and enforced by the ruling bodies of a country to regulate conduct of the society. Laws are more specific and subject to change according to the social, political, religious, administrative, security and economic requirements of a country. Therefore, provisions in Section 21 of the PPRA Ordinance (Federal Government’s procurements, in national interest, can be exempted from the operation of PPRA Ordinance or any other law regulating public procurement) is not against the constitution. Considering these provisions in PPRA Ordinance, Federal Government has further amended the PPRA Rule 42 and added clause F (a procuring agency may engage in direct contracting with state-owned entities such as professional, autonomous or semi-autonomous organizations or bodies of the federal or provincial governments for the procurement of such works and services, including consultancy services, which are time-sensitive and in the public interest) according to the needs of time and requirements of the society.
FWO and NLC are strategic necessity of Pakistan. They support the Government and the Army in peace and war. During war, requirements of communication engineers’ services and transportation of war material enhances manifolds, which necessitates the presence of such capable and active organizations to meet those requirements. In peace, they support growth of national economy by providing logistic support and undertaking development projects in far-flung areas, where private companies avoid working due to presence of difficult terrain and security challenges. Few recent examples that establishes these facts are construction of Diamer Bhasha Dam, Gomal Zam Dam, Kurram Tangi Dam and Jagran-2 Hydropower project. Laying of road networks in difficult areas to include; 1600 km road network in Balochistan (Makran Coastal Highway, Road Sohrab – Panjgur – Hoshab and Gawadar – Turbat – Hoshab Motorway), 800 km road network in Newly Merged Districts of KP (connecting Wana – Shakai – Makeen), Road Jaglot – Skardu and most of all the historical marvel, Karakoram Highway in GB. Another hard task undertaken is paving the way for regional connectivity with Central Asian Republics through Afghanistan.
These organizations always remained at forefront in all disaster relieve activities to include 2005 Earthquake, 2010 Attabad Landslide and Floods Relieve Operations of 2010 and 2022. They provide job opportunities to people (NLC – 88% Civilian Employees, FWO 55% Civilian Employees) and deposit billions of tax money in government exchequer every year. During peacetime, these organizations are permitted to take up commercial/ nation building projects under law, through competitive bidding, to upkeep professional competence of human resource and modern equipment requirements without putting any burden on the National Exchequer. These organizations are regularly audited externally and internally through various audit authorities, such as; Director General Audit – Defense Services (DGA DS), Controller Military Accounts (CMA), Controller Local Audit – Defense Production (CLA DP) and “A” rated Charted Accountant Firm respectively, to avoid and prevent misappropriations.
They participate in bidding through open competition in accordance with rules and regulations set by PPRA and the Government. In last 5 years, FWO participated in bidding for 126 projects but won only 34 projects (26% success rate) whereas, NLC won a total of 14 projects in last 3 years after due competition with other state and private owned companies. These statistics indicates that no special preference was given to these two organizations in contrary to the report submitted in IHC by the petitioner. The petitioner and the biased newspaper failed to mention above-given facts and also not highlighted 1300 lives laid down by them in the line of nation building. The petitioner in his report submitted to IHC also criticized the collection of Toll Taxes on Motorways. However, he did not include the fact that Motorways (M-2; Lahore – Islamabad, M-9; Karachi – Hyderabad, M -11 Lahore-Sialkot and M -16; Swat) are Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) projects under public private partnership regime, which FWO won in competitive bidding from NHA. As per the agreement with NHA, FWO has to reimburse the construction cost of these projects through toll collection.
Here, it is worth mentioning that Pakistan Armed Forces are not the only military in the world that runs Welfare and Support Organizations. Most contemporary militaries like; China’s Peoples’ Liberation Army’s (PLA) Pro Corps, Turkey’s Armed Forces Trust and Pension Fund (OYAK), India’s Border Roads Organization (BRO) and USA’s Military Industrial Complex (MIC), runs such organizations and play their respective role in nation building. These institutions of Pakistan Army are renowned for their superior capabilities and high quality work. Government entities prefer them for undertaking mega construction and logistics’ projects due to their abilities to complete the prescribed work according to the requirements and in stipulated time frame. At times, direct contracting is resorted to avoid undue lengthy bureaucratic channels/ processes to meet the urgency involved and to prevent funds from lapsing.
Petition filed in IHC is absurd, falsified and prejudiced and its propagation by a reputed newspaper, in the form of a four-column story, is against the code of just and unbiased reporting. Appearance of this issue at this time may be driven by the want of grabbing the contract of Rawalpindi Ring Road Project by certain contractors and the Government Officials behind them for accruing benefits in the form of kickbacks. People behind this action are also politically motivated and connected to the much-despised political cult involved in the ongoing false propaganda against the Armed Forces of Pakistan. Besides tarnishing the image of such potent organizations like FWO and NLC in this case, these propaganda campaigns adversely affect the morale of the troops, damages the established reputation of the Armed Forces and above all, create chasm between them and the people of Pakistan. This void can prove disastrous for defense and security of the country in the face of behemoth challenges Pakistan is facing today.

The author is a freelance columnist. He can be reached at: km210975@gmail.com.