Abbottabad:
A legal opinion has been served at the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Wildlife & National Parks Department, accusing serious irregularities, favoritism and legal violations in the recent tender process for an eco-tourism project in the Ayubia National Park. The opinion requires immediate corrective action.
Emitted by lawyer Malik Saeed Akhtar on behalf of the company Titanic 2000, the legal opinion alleges that the tender process has been manipulated for the benefit of “preselected and blue eyes” in collusion with the heads of the department.
The opinion stresses that the department has weakened the management committee of the compulsory biosphere of the compulsory biosphere program of the UNESCO compulsory biosphere program, violating international commitments. He also accuses the Ministry of Duplicity – opposing the Ayubia flesh project for ecological reasons while advancing a similar initiative as part of a request for non -transparent proposals (DP).
Quoting “concrete evidence”, the opinion claims that the technical evaluation scores were arbitrarily modified after the submission to promote specific tenderers, breaking rule 47 of Kppra. It also expresses strong suspicions that financial offers can be falsified after submission, violation of the KPPRA rule 34.
The document describes additional procedural violations, in particular: the absence of the chairman of the offer assessment committee when opening offers, illegal delegation of the decision -making authority to a single individual and marginalization of the official members of the Committee while two officials of the Wildlife Department managed the process.
Training of a “parallel evaluation committee”, which would have opened offers and showed a clear favoritism towards a tenderer.
In addition, the tenderers would have received an unrealistic deadline of six days to subject environmental impact assessments (EIAS), despite the legal obligations under the Pakistan Environmental Protection ACT, of 1997, placing this responsibility on the project promoter – not bidders. This requirement would have been omitted from the DP.
Significant delays in the evaluation process took place without formal communication, and the actions of the ministry violated the 2015 law of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Wildlife and Biodiversity Act, KPPRA and other governing laws.
Titanic 2000 demanded the divisional forest officer: immediately rectify all legal and procedural violations. Ensure compliance with the rules of KPPRA 2014 and other environmental laws and purchases, transfer the responsibility of the officially notified committee and take corrective measures against civil servants involved in alleged misconduct.
The company warned that the fact of not complying within seven days would result in legal proceedings at the risks and costs of the ministry.
Concerns raised
In a related development, Sardar M Sabir, vice-president of the biosphere management committee, wrote to the secretary of the Department of Forests and Wildlife, government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. In a two -page letter, a copy of which is available from the Express PK Press Club, he raised concerns concerning the alleged manipulation of offers, the violations of the procedure and the exclusion of the committee of the whole process – despite his role of governance within the framework of the UNESCO MAB program.
Sabir said that the technical scores had been modified to promote a particular tenderer and alleged attempts to modify financial offers after submission. He also noted that no member of the committee was involved in the assessment of offers, all centralized authorities in a single individual. The absence of the preservative’s fauna, the chairman of the committee, when the offer was opened, was also underlined.
He called for a impartial investigation into the violations of tenders and purchasing, the immediate cancellation of the current tender process and the inclusion of the biosphere management committee in all of future planning and decision -making.
The controversy echoes a similar tumult surrounding the previous Ayubia chairlift project, which was also reactive on procedural irregularities and ecological concerns. In this case, the Galiyat Development Authority (GDA) rented 110 Kanals of land to the Monal group for commercial use, which has alarms on the potential damage to the ecological equilibrium of the park.
The status of the Ayubia National Park as a biosphere reserve designated by UNESCO underlines the need for protection of the rigorous environment and transparent governance to ensure that its biodiversity and its ecological integrity are preserved.
