ISLAMABAD, July 17: The National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) on Wednesday requested the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to decide “at the earliest” the petition filed by a bidder challenging a tender it floated for its Smart Card project.
Nadra counsel Afnan Karim Kundi told Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of the court that a delay would build up “a huge backlog” as the existing stock of the special cards, and the contract that supplied them, “are going to expire in the next few months”.
Since the petitioner company, the SCT Group, did not participate in the bidding process, it was neither an aggrieved party nor it pointed out any violation of law in the bidding process, said the Nadra counsel.
He alleged that influential persons of Pakistan People’s Party, “still interested in winning major contracts”, were behind the litigation.
However, Justice Siddiqui, who had stopped the process of awarding the contract on June 4 after preliminary hearing SCT’s petition, extended the restraining order and adjourned the matter until next month, to be disposed off soon after the Eid holidays.
The SCT Group had moved the court after Nadra, through a corrigendum, reduced the quantity of Smart Cards to 20 million from 30 million in the tender floated on March 7 this year, and 12 days later issued a Request for Proposal (RFP), rendering the process looking biased and mala fide to the petitioner.
SCT’s counsel Khawaja Saad Rasool put to the court that the changes made the formula for awarding the contract unclear, cumbersome, confusing and unascertainable.
“It could conveniently be used as an instrument to weed out certain parties and favour other bidders,” he said.
According to him, the amended tender violated the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority Rules 2004.
Counsel Kundi, however, said: “Nadra is still open to public scrutiny of its procurement process as it has taken the institutions like the Transparency International, the Federal Investigation Agency and the National Accountability Bureau on board to make the procurement process strictly on merit and transparent manner.”
Earlier, he informed the court that the Smart Card project was planned to replace 95 million existing Computerised National Identity Cards and the
petition challenging the tender process for the Smart Card is based on mala fide intentions.
Nadra launched the third generation, chip-based identity document last year.
The Smart Card is designed according to international standards and requirements.
The card has over 36 physical security features and uses latest encryption codes.
Initially Nadra decided to produce 3.5 million Smart Cards, which it claims to be the safest card in the world.