The Chief Justice of Supreme Court has remarked that civil servants should not obey verbal orders and ask for written orders of their competent authorities and in case such orders are against rules and norms they should state their objections. Only in this manner they could be absolved of their responsibility for action in a particular case. I would like to quote a specific case during the end of 1977 when Pakistan was under Martial Law of late General Zia-ul-Haq. The scribe was serving as additional secretary in Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture and acting as Chairman of Tender Committee of the Ministry.
There was a case of a tender floated for fertiliser worth US $40 million, which was won by a certain company run by a retired senior bureaucrat who quoted a rate of $10 per ton lower than the prevalent international rate and swept the entire tender. However, he failed to name his supplier within a stipulated time of one week and risked the forfeiture of per cent initially as guarantee of the tender amount for his failure to do so.
At 9 PM one day I received a telephonic call from CMLAs office at my residence that CMLA would like to talk to me as I was holding the fort during the Secretarys absence on leave at Rome. The CMLA wanted to know as to why this particular person was not being approved for supplying the fertiliser at such low rates. It was explained that the supply order had already been given to the person but he had failed to give the name of his supplier within one week. He desired that the bidder may be given three more days to seek the name of his supplier from USA.
The whole conversation was recorded and a copy sent to CMLA for confirmation. A copy of record was also sent to Mr Ghulam Ishaq Khan, Secretary General in Chief and to Mr A G N Qazi, Secretary General Finance who said that three days extension may be given to tenderer as desired by the President. The bidder left for USA but still could not find a supplier of fertiliser at the quoted rate. Meanwhile, a telefax was received from the Pakistani consulate in USA that a certain Pakistani citizen was searching for a supplier of fertiliser as published in the Fertiliser World journal and that he could not find a supplier and a fellow was accompanying the bidder who claimed to be a relation of some top brass in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, a letter was received from the then Chairman of National Bank, Mr Jameel Nishtar that this particular company of bidder was a fake one and its bank guarantee may be confiscated. Accordingly Rs 10 lakh as bank guarantee were confiscated of the said bidder and CMLA was informed about the case. He wrote on the summery sent by the ministry send him to me. It was intimated that the bidder could not be traced in the country.
Three months after this episode the scribe was transferred to Punjab as Secretary Livestock in my own grade of APUG 21. Subsequently I was prematurely retired at the age of 50 years in June1979 under Section 13(1) of the Civil Servants Act 1973 without any show cause, which is a long story as it took 15 years to get the above law declared repugnant to Injunctions of Islam by the Shariat Appellate Bench of Supreme Court and to get relief from the Services Review Board in 1994 in the form of retrospective reinstatement. The above episode is narrated so that the cost of facing the music by the conscientious civil servant be known of the odds of service in his life time while a few survive in this long battle of right and wrong if they have stamina and will for the struggle with the blessings of Allah Almighty.
MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTI
Lahore
