Islamabad: After thorough investigation of Rs 17,000 crore Road ProjectsThe Senate Department of Economic Affairs Standing Committee recommended blacklisting of joint ventures of three companies that were awarded a project by the National Highway Administration for breaching the rules.
The Central Asian Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Tranche-III project involved auxiliary practices and ghost twists in several parliamentary committees, as well as other violations of the project’s ruling.
The minutes of the last Senate panel meeting also suggested a letter from the mission to the Asian Donor Bank tell them that the bid was “technically invalid and manipulated” due to the intentions of NHA officials and contractors.
The panel also asked the Department of Economic Affairs to write to the ADB within two days, informing the lender that the bid was technically invalid, which made the company fail to comply with the rules.
The committee requests NHA, EAD to contact ADB to inform donors about the manipulation of the bidding process
The committee also directed EAD to share the findings of the Senate panel with the investigation committee formed by the Prime Minister. Earlier, in this case, the Prime Minister suspended eight senior officials of the NHA.
The committee also recommends legal proceedings against auditors for filing falsified reports without supporting documents. It noted that the auditor submitted working papers to the payment mentioned in the audit form without any supporting documents and conducted suspected manipulations against the arbitrator because of his past connections with the joint venture partner.
The major companies in the joint venture were disqualified in the CAREC-II project but were later declared eligible for the third phase of the project, inviting parliamentary review. The committee insists that the company is an imperfectly established company and has been involved in litigation related to the Lodhran-Multan project.
“The committee announced M/s NXCC, M/S dynamic constructor and M/S Rustam Associates Null and Void due to failure to achieve mandatory average errors for local partners.
The committee also requested the OAD and NHA to submit a comprehensive report on the first part of the N-45 project (Chakdara-Timargara) at its next meeting. The Senate agency recommended that OAD and NHA receive tax relief of about Rs 1.7 billion from companies involved in the Shandur-Gilgit project.
Posted at Dawn on September 22, 2025
