The Supreme Court on Wednesday while adjourning till January 1 an application against the controversial procurement of armoured personnel carriers (APCs) for the security agencies, summoned comments from NAB in the matter.
A three-judge bench headed by Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali had taken up an application filed by Syed Mehmood Akhtar Naqvi, a civil rights campaigner, who moved the court against the procurement of armoured personnel carriers (APCs).
During hearing on Wednesday, Farooq H Naik, who represented Sindh government, submitted to the bench the details about the procurement of armoured personnel carriers (APCs). The court directed the NAB’s prosecutor to apprise it of inquiry conducted by NAB into the procurement of APCs when the matter was brought to its knowledge.
In an application, Naqvi submitted that the provincial assembly passed the Sindh Emergency Procurement Bill, 2014, on February 7, 2014, for purchase of the different items required for the security agencies. Subsequently, the provincial authorities made an agreement with a Serbian firm for the purchase of APCs worth Rs 8 billion on inflated rates without issuing any legal procurement tender.
Naqvi claimed that APCs being purchased had already been scrapped in Serbia and were not up to the mark but the authorities were purchasing the same at exorbitant rates.
He stated the same vehicles could be purchased from America at a relatively lower price of Rs 40 million each. He claimed that several top officers were removed when they refused to become part of this controversial deal, adding previous IGP was also transferred for the same purpose.
Naqvi said the Sindh government enacted the law with malafide intention in order to purchase the APCs and other equipment including bullet-proof jackets, helmets for the law enforcement agencies, illegally. The court was pleaded to declare the Act and subsequent procurements as unconstitutional and set aside the new law.
This deal smells of corruption of the highest order. If this purchase was of that emergency, now almost 1 year have passed, yet the Sindh govt is not able to resolve this issue. Had this procurement process transparent as per rule, purchase would have been made long ago….but who cares ? human lives not important, but filling pocket is more important.
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