Why was this ‘rich’ businessman given free access in the first place? Punjab Govt should continue and nanga-fy all these corrupt musharraf loyalists in their first few months of power.
Friend of Musharraf comes in the Sharif’s line of fire
Thursday, May 15, 2008
By Ansar Abbasi
ISLAMABAD: The Punjab government of Chief Minister Khosa-cum-Mian Shahbaz Sharif is withdrawing a special facility given to a common friend of President Pervez Musharraf and Governor Khalid Maqbool and no longer will the private jet of this business tycoon friend be allowed to use an airport VIP parking lot free of charge.
In fact, the government will be recovering the parking fee for the last six months, totalling about Rs 7 million.
Governor Punjab Lt-Gen (retd) Khalid Maqbool had authorised his and President Musharraf’s common friend Iqbal Z Ahmad, a business tycoon, to use the VIP Hangar Area at the Lahore airport for the latter’s private jet for six months free of charge.
The facility was awarded as a service to the Associated Group of Iqbal Z Ahmad without any competitive process or agreement signed between the Government of Punjab and the company. The six months period has expired on April 30, 2008 but the company is still using the facility.
Now the present regime is all set to debar the president/governor’s buddy from using the VIP facility besides moving to recover from the Associated Group the charges at the rate of Rs 1.1 million per month.
Documents available with The News reveal that in his letter last year, Iqbal Z Ahmad had requested the Punjab government to take responsibility for the operation and management of the Raytheon 400XP aircraft, being purchased by the Associated Group, through its VIP Flight Unit, using the Governor’s fleet facilities.
In return, it was offered, the aircraft would be available for use by the Government of Punjab, when not in use by the owners, at the approved charter rates being paid for a similar aircraft by the provincial government.
On October 6, 2007, the then chief minister approved an arrangement subject to the conditions including (i) It should not affect the structure and working of the existing VIP Flight; (ii) VIP flight pilots would only be made available to the Associated Group in their excess/spare time; (iii) No additional pay/allowances would be allowed to the VIP flight staff; and (iv) Government of Punjab would separately negotiate the rates of the charter flights vis-‡-vis its share based on the commercial rates being charged for such flights.
Later, the Punjab government advised the governor to approve an agreement with the company so that the Associated Group should be made to pay monthly charges for using the facility, which was already in use with effect from Nov 1, 2007.
However, in his meeting with the then chief secretary Salman Siddiq, the governor asked the government to take a fresh look into the proposed charges and if the recommended charges were reasonable and rational. The governor also asked if there was any security risk involved in the proposal.
Following the governor’s desire, the authorities concerned revised the proposed rates to Rs 1.1 million per month. The chief secretary on Nov 13 submitted the file to the governor for orders clarifying that this was not a case of the government desiring to procure the service but a stand-alone case where the private sector had requested for a government facility, subject to availability.
The chief secretary said there may be no bar to extend the facility to the private sector, even though temporarily. Further, he said, the Punjab government would receive Rs 1.1 million as service charges for providing the facility.
Later, the governor, instead of approving the proposed charges, once more discussed the matter with the chief secretary, who wrote on the file, “The governor was pleased to discuss the case at length and had desired that with a view to ensure propriety and probity, a fresh look may be taken in the case.”
Later, the issues were discussed afresh in a meeting with secretaries of finance and law department on Jan 11, 2008. The participants of the meeting, according to a chief secretary’s note forwarded for orders of the chief minister on Jan 11, 2008, wished to place on record the fact that this was a novel case in which the government rather than procuring goods or services, was actually entering into an agreement to provide a service on grounds of availability of space and capacities and that too for a very limited period.
The CS note added that such procurement procedures were not applicable to the case, nor was there a demand from private sector airplane owners to receive a similar treatment. The members of the meeting were convinced, the CS added, that their recommendations fulfilled the norms of propriety and probity, so the amended agreement (that included monthly fee of Rs 1.1 million) may be approved. The chief minister forwarded the same to the governor on Jan 12, 2007 with yet another advice to kindly approve the agreement.
After a lapse of several weeks and following the Feb 18 elections, the Principal Secretary to Governor, Hassan Waseem Afzal returned the case to the chief minister on March 4, 2008 carrying the governor’s “provisional approval” for a period of six months with effect from 1-11-2007. But while conveying his “provisional approval”, the governor raised some additional points that were required to be considered by the Punjab government before entering into formal agreement with the Associated Group.
As things stand at present, no formal agreement was ever signed with the private party; however, they were provisionally allowed to use the service for six months, a period that has already elapsed.
Now the concerned authorities have sought from the chief minister to debar the company from using any facility at the VIP Area and also recover the cost for facilities provided for six months as per the rates agreed before.