Latest News on Passport printing issue in Pakistan :'(
http://www.thefrontierpost.com/article/2965/
ISLAMABAD – Islamabad High Court on Wednesday issued a stay order over a billion rupees contract with a US company for the purchase of passport lamination papers.
Islamabad High Court's Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui heard the petition of a French company pertaining to passport contract issue on Tuesday.
It was mentioned in the petition that Pakistan's Interior Ministry had published an advertisement regarding purchase of lamination papers and companies from United Satates and France had submitted their bids.
Later, it was decided that samples of lamination papers will be forwarded to the US and Canadian laboratories for quality check, following which the financial deals were supposed to be reviewed.
The French company stated that it obtained 940 points out of 1000 but Interior Secretary Siddiq Akbar and DG Immigration Maqbool Gondal did not acknowledge it over the results.
Under the agreement, technical bids were scheduled to open first, however, officials of the interior ministry e-mailed the company that financial bid was scheduled for March 24.
Afterwards, the contract was awarded to the US company.
Advocate Salman Akram Raja, counsel for the French company, prayed to court to cancel the contract and order the ministry to re-initiate the bidding process.
On this, the court issued a stay order over the contract and summoned the respondents in the next hearing.
On the other hand, Dunya News obtained the copy of FIA's inquiry report.
Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in its report blamed the Interior Ministry for delay in the passport issuance.
The ministry created artificial shortage of the lamination papers, the report revealed.
