NAB court acquitted 16 accused including PML-N leader Engineer Raja Qamar ul Islam.

[muhammadhafeezmalik]

An accountability court Monday acquitted 16 accused including Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) PML-N leader Engineer Raja Qamar ul Islam.

AC acquits 16 in Saaf Pani Company case

An accountability court Monday acquitted 16 accused including Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) PML-N leader Engineer Raja Qamar ul I...

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NAB arrested Islam one day after he was awarded ticket by PML-N for the general election 2018 against Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, disgruntled leader of the party, from NA-59, even though NAB gave clean chit to him just a few days earlier. he was released from jail after 08 months on bail.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1011354743954919424

The case was that the successful bidder was asked by CM to reduce the prices further and with the savings money more filtration plants were purchased which was a violation of the rules i.e. tender for 84 filtration plants was published but 116 filtration plants were installed with the same money!! These filtration plants were in installed Bahwalpur and the successful bidder also provided solar plants to run four filtration plants. According to NAB it was the proof that the project was given at exorbitant price and later more filtration plants were added which were not part of the tender. The company, KASB pumps, lawyer said that they provided extra filtration plants and solar panels without any cost and landed.

The NAB had filed reference against 20 persons, including former director Saaf Pani Company Engineer Qamar-ul-Islam and former CEO Waseem Ajmal, accused of awarding contracts at exorbitant rates causing a loss of Rs345.282 million to the national kitty. PSPC Chief Technical Officer, Dr Zaheer-ud-Din, Chief Procurement Officer Nasir Qadir Badhal, Consultant Engineer Saleem Akhtar and Managing Director, KSB Pumps, Muhammad Masud Akhter, Deputy Secretary, Housing, Khalid Nadeem Bukhari, Raja Qamar-ul-Islam, former Deputy Secretary Zahoor Ahmed Dogar, ex-Chief Resident Engineer Maj (retd) Adnan Aftab Khan, Resident Engineer Syed Masoud-ul-Hassan Kazmi, Resident Engineer Moeen-ud-Din and Resident Engr Younas were also nominated in the reference.

 

[muhammadhafeezmalik]

Accorded to detailed judgment :


“We have noted that there is absolutely no allegation against the petitioners that they received any commission, kickbacks, illegal gratification while awarding contract.

There is nothing on record that a single penny was paid to them or transferred in their accounts or in the accounts of their relatives or friends. Similarly, there is no allegation that any movable or immovable property was transferred in their names or the names of their relatives or friends,” said the just-released judgement, a copy of which is available with The News. It said that the accused did not commit any illegality in negotiating the price of bid with KSB pumps and its reduction immediately after the opening of the bids.

“We are unable to notice any material illegality or violation of rules/law on the subject. If for the sake of arguments, it is presumed that there was any procedural irregularity in the exercise of jurisdiction by the petitioners, even then the same does not amount to misuse of authority to constitute any offence under Section 9(a)” of the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO).

The main allegation against the accused was that they reduced the bid price of the contract from Rs1.14 billion to Rs989 million through post-bid negotiations with the KSB Pumps in order to adjust the bid price with engineering cost estimates of Rs995 million, the judgement noted. The KSB Pumps offered that if the numbers of plants is increased from 84 to 102, it will charge 20% less price of all the plants. This offer was placed before the BoDs, and all the directors unanimously accepted this offer and consequently the price of the plants was reduced.

The verdict said that there is no dispute that KSB Pumps was the lowest bidder and its financial bid of Rs1.14 billion immediately after the opening of the bid through post-bid negotiations got reduced to Rs989 million. The engineering cost estimate of the project was admittedly Rs995 million. It is also an admitted fact that under the relevant rules, the accused/Board of Directors (BoDs) of the PSPC were authorised under the rules to award contract at 4.5% higher amount than that cited in engineering cost estimate.

The verdict said that prima facie, all the proceedings in this case were taken in accordance with the law and rules on the subject; the contract was awarded after acceptance of the negotiated bid of KSB Pumps; and even the contract was signed with the prior approval of the BoDs in its meeting on May 18, 2016.

As many as nine directors, including CEO/director, namely, Waseem Ajmal Chaudhry, participated in it along with the five ex-officio directors. It was unanimously approved that additional 36 plants shall be installed without solar system. The BoDs also decided unanimously that the plants shall be built pre-fabricated material. Surprisingly only two directors out of 14, have been made accused for the reasons best known to the NAB, the judgement said.

The NAB prosecutor tried to distinguish the case of Qamarul Islam and Waseem Ajmal from the remaining directors by stating that Qamarul Islam was the convener of the procurement committee and he and Waseem Ajmal being CEO made post-bid changes in violation of the Punjab Procurement Rules, recommended the same for approval to the BoDs and as such their case is distinguishable from remaining directors; therefore, they were not made accused in this case.

The judgement said there is no force in this argument because firstly no illegality has been committed by the accused in making post-bid changes and negotiations with KSB Pums where the bid price was substantially reduced from Rs1.14 billion to Rs989 million and secondly the accused only recommended placing of the contract in favour of KSB Pumps on the basis of the negotiated bid for its approval by the BoDs and final approval was made by all the 14 directors.

The ruling said although it was argued by NAB prosecutor that installation of plants in Tehsil Dunyapur was illegal because it was not included in the priority list of tehsils but admittedly district Lodhran is included in it whereas Dunyapur is a tehsil of district Lodhran. Therefore, in the judges’ view apparently no crime was committed by the accused if they installed filtration plants in Tehsil Dunyapur which was part of district Lodhran.

“We are unable to understand the allegation that the price of the plants could not be further reduced so as to make compatible with the engineering cost estimates when there was no compromise with the quality of plants. No laboratory report has been produced before the court to establish that the plants installed by KSB Pumps were providing low quality/quantity of water from the installed plants.”

The judgement said under the circumstances there is no force in the allegations against Muhammad Masoudul Hassan, Moeenuddin and Muhammad Younas that they wilfully failed to exercise their authority in preventing loss of the State exchequer on account of defective/substandard civil works executed in installation of water filtration plants in Bahawalpur region.

 

[ghazi52]

Lahore court acquits PML-N leader, 15 others in Saaf Pani corruption case​

Rana Bilal
January 31, 2022

A file photo of Punjab Saaf Pani Company former chairperson Raja Qamarul Islam. — Photo courtesy Facebook


An accountability court in Lahore on Monday acquitted 16 persons, including Punjab Saaf Pani Company's (PSPC) former chairperson and PML-N leader Raja Qamarul Islam, in a corruption reference pertaining to irregularities in the public-sector company.

Islam, also a former MPA, was the prime suspect in the reference, which the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had filed in December 2018 against 20 persons.

Among the 20, two were foreigners and had not joined the trial and another suspect named Muhammad Tehseen, who was a former chief design engineer at Associated Consultant Engineers, died of Covid-19 during the course of the trial.

On Monday, Judge Sajid Ali Awan acquitted Islam and 15 others of the remaining 17 suspects.
Besides Islam, former PSPC chief executive officer Wasim Ajmal, former PSPC chief technical officer Dr Zaheeruddin, former PSPC chief procurement officer Nasir Qadir Bhadal, former consultant engineer Saleem Akhtar, former KSB Pumps managing director Masud Akhtar, former housing deputy secretaries Khalid Nadeem Bukhari and Zahoor Ahmad Dogar, former PSPC chief resident engineer Major (retd) Adnan Aftab Khan, former PSPC resident engineers Moeenuddin, Syed Masoudul Hassan Kazmi and Muhammad Younas, former PSPC projects works manager Waris Malik, former senior contract engineer at Engineering General Consultants Masroor Ahmad, former PSPC Bahawalpur director Khalid Khan and former PSPC general projects and services manager Tahir Maqbool have been acquitted in the reference.
All 16 of them had filed acquittal pleas and Islam, Ajmal, Maqbool, Khalid and Masroor were represented by Advocates Mian Ali Ashfaq and Rana Maroof.

The reference​

The Saaf Pani scam had surfaced after the NAB had launched a thorough probe in November 2017 into alleged corruption in the 56 public-sector companies, including the PSPC, formed by the administration in Punjab led by PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif at the time. These companies were accused of certain irregularities, recruitment in violation of procurement rules and merit, nepotism, and non-completion of various projects in time.

According to NAB, the suspects were facing allegations of awarding an illegal contract to KSB Pumps for the installation of 116 water filtration plants allegedly on exorbitant rates and mala fide involvement of PSPC officials by means of corruption and corrupt practices which caused a collective loss amounting to Rs345 million to the national exchequer.

It further said the suspects prepared the engineering cost estimates at much higher rates in connivance with consultants and officials of the PSPC, whereas weather shield applications on these plants were also approved on exorbitant rates.

The NAB said it initiated investigation against the management and officials of PSPC south and others in August 2018. During the course of investigation, it was revealed that with mala fide intentions a contract was awarded to KSB Pumps for installation of 82 water filtration plants on exorbitant rates and without proper approval of engineering estimates/technical sanction.

The NAB alleged that illegal addendum of 36 additional filtration plants was also approved, wherein the scope of the project was already changed. Later, electrical and solar works were also executed at exorbitant rates during installation of these plants in Bahawalpur Region, including the use of substandard material, it said.
“Investigation against the suspects also disclosed that the weather shield applied on external walls of the filtration plants in Bahawalpur was also marked on exorbitant rates, whereas, eight solar and grid-based filtration plants installed in Dunyapur tehsil were not included into the contract even in the list of four priority tehsils,” the NAB said.


Earlier this month, the court had declared Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif’s daughter Rabia and son-in-law Imran Ali Yousaf absconders in the case.

 

[SIPRA]

Every body would be acquitted, for the simple reason, that it is a well established fact, that Pakistani nation is the most honest and morally sound nation, in the world.