LHC orders agencies to make procurement of development plan public within one month

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) has directed all the procuring agencies in the province to make the procurement of annual development plan public within one month of the beginning of fiscal year.

The court passed this order in a petition of M/s G P Enterprises and others challenging the action of Lahore Municipal Corporation combing different types of works in one project for the procurement.

The court observed that a procuring agency should consider splitting of the work at the planning stage. If it still decides to group them together in one contract when it is tendering then it should state its reasons, the court added.

The court observed that this should be encouraged as a best practice amongst the procuring agencies to avoid any such challenges during the procurement process.

It observed that the right to freedom of trade, business or profession under the Constitution is not an absolute right but is subject to qualifications and restrictions prescribed by the law.

The courts have already held that such restrictions have to be reasonable and the courts are competent to review such restrictions on the touchstone of reasonability, the LHC said.

The court said there is no specific allegation or evidence that the impugned tenders or any specific tender is tailored to favour any particular contractor.

The court observed that considering the large number of the contractors eligible to participate in the tenders for each category, there does not appear to be any direct evidence of favouritism or limitation on the competition. As such there is no material on record to reach the conclusion that there is any favouritism, the court added.

The court said that the petitioners’ entire case is that they are being deprived of the opportunity to participate in these works because the MCL has failed to split the tender into smaller lots.

The court observed that this is not a ground for discrimination since the petitioners can only claim discrimination if the contractors in the same class, as the petitioners, were treated dissimilarly.

The court said that the petitioners have neither assailed the contractor categorisation system nor the applicable rules, including rule 16 of the Rules 2014 or rule 8 of the Rules 2017; therefore, no case of discrimination is made out.

The MCL had told the court that the procurement plan was carried out on the special initiative of the Punjab government for improving the quality of amenities in the city hence the MCL was obligated not to split the works.

The court observed that the stance is duly supported by the documents brought on record.

The court; therefore, disposed of the petitions and directed the office to send the copy of the judgment to Managing Director, Punjab Procurement Regulatory Authority for compliance of the court’s directions.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025