The Lahore High Court (LHC) here on Wednesday issued notice to Chairman National Highways Authority (NHA) and Evolves Company and sought reply within three weeks in a petition filed by one Muhammad Imran Chohan alleging NHA of kickbacks and massive corruption in awarding Highways advertising contracts.
The petitioner through his counsel Muhammad Amin Goraya, submitted that NHA gave a contract of advertising rights to Evolves company in 2005 for using Lahore to Sahiwal Motorway for advertising purpose for 5-year. The petitioner stated that in 2006 NHA committing corruption gave additional advertising rights to the said company to use Lahore to Kalashah Kako Motorway (M-2) without charges.
The NHA extended the contract for additional two years without calling tenders for it. The petitioner said, the NHA instead of increasing the rates gave special favour by reducing annual advertising rates from 1.3 million per year to Rs 0.8 million per year.
The petitioner said NHA could not extend the 5-year contract or reduce annual rates without giving tender for open competition to the contractors. The NHA authorities concerned by the mishandling caused a loss of Rs 0.5 million per year to the department and the government. The court after hearing the arguments of the petitioner counsel sought reply from the NHA and the company in three weeks.
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