Former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf may find himself in hot water in a Rs9 billion case relating to two under-construction road projects in his constituency (NA-51), to be decided by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday.

Some retired military officers associated with the National Logistic Cell (NLC) and bosses of the Pak-Public Works Department (Pak-PWD) may also be in trouble because the contracts awarded to the NLC are believed to be illegal and in violation of Public Procurement Regulatory Authority rules.

According to information obtained by Dawn, the cost of the two projects was enhanced through a memorandum of understanding and the contracts were awarded to the NLC on the orders of the former premier conveyed to the project executing agency — Pak-PWD — through a letter issued by his principal secretary Qazi Ayub on Oct 2, 2012.

Of the Rs37bn development package for NA-51 (Gujjar Khan), Rs2.68bn was allocated for converting 64km Mandra-Chakwal road into a dual carriageway and Rs3.3bn for 70km Sohawa-Chakwal road.Later, the estimated cost of the Rs2.68 billion project was enhanced to Rs4.48bn and that of the Rs3.3bn project to 4.9bn, the document said.

The IHC came to know that the NLC was awarded the two road projects although it did not participate in the process of pre-qualification of firms interested in the projects.Also, the initially entire estimated cost of the projects (Rs6bn) was paid to the NLC despite restraining orders issued by the IHC on Oct 10, 2012.

According to the document, Rs1.1bn was paid to the NLC on Oct 15, 2012, Rs1.2bn on Jan 30, 2013 and Rs3.70bn on March 16, 2013.Although the cost of the two projects was enhanced by 57 per cent the scope of work remained the same.

The court observed that after obtaining the contracts, the NLC sublet it to firms already pre-qualified by Pak-PWD. It noted that government resources and money spent on prequalification process had gone waste as the projects were not awarded to any firm which had cleared the process.

It has been reported that the Rs37bn package for Gujjar Khan was not mentioned in Rs360bn Public Sector Development Programme but the Planning Commission approved it in a special meeting on Sept 7, 2012.

The commission’s spokesperson and head of public investment authorisation section, Ishfaqullah Khan, had confirmed that the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) had cleared the two major road sector projects for approval by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) and approved other projects of lower cost.

The CDWP’s powers for project approval are limited to schemes costing up to Rs1bn and projects of higher cost are required to be approved by Ecnec.The former prime minister is also facing two other cases heard by the Supreme Court — Rs22bn Rental Power Projects scam and Rs82bn Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority case.