The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has barred the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) from awarding a contract to rebuild operation theatres (OTs) of its orthopedics department on a plea, claiming alleged irregularities during the tender process. Justice Babar Sattar on Thursday issued the order on a petition filed by M/s Biotech Pakistan through its counsel Barrister S M Yawar and Barrister Ali Abbas, seeking a fresh tender and probe by the Federal Investigation Agency into the process of contract awarding. During the proceedings, Barrister Yawar Abbas argued that nine companies had applied in the bidding process but only four Biotech, Vertex, Radiant and Mediland were invited to participate. He accused that Vertex and Radiant submitted supporting bids to give benefit to Mediland, which ultimately won the tender. Barrister Yawar alleged that the biding process was “suspicious and malicious”. His client had submitted the lowest bid of $4 million, and Mediland that of around Euros 6.6 million, while the other two bids were of Euros 6.7 million and Euro 6.8 million. He urged the court to issue a restraining order as section 48 of the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules 2004 made it compulsory to suspend the procurement proceedings after submission of a grievance report against the tender process. Justice Babar Sattar after hearing the counsel’s arguments, issued the restraining order and served notices to the PIMS chairman and director, secretary health and chief executive officer (CEO) of Mediland.The hearing was adjourned till July 29.