KARACHI, 9 October 2024: The process of awarding a 15-year operating lease on Islamabad International Airport by the government has become controversial as one of the two bidders has not been allowed to participate in the bidding. Strong rumors are swirling of favoritism in the government’s first privatization transaction.

Danish Janjua, a team member of the disallowed consortium, complained that they had been stopped by the guard at the gate for five minutes, benefiting the other bidder. He said, “I went to the Civil Aviation office first where the security guard did not know that the bid was being submitted here. Our competitor reached there five minutes before us. When we reached there, we were told why you came here. We told them that we have to submit our bid for the Islamabad Airport project.”

He lamented that their six months of hardworking has been wasted, saying that they had gathered bid bonds worth 50 million US dollars for the project, and, have assembled a consortium of world’s leading airport operators and investors, but their bid was refused acceptance. Mr Janjua’s consortium consists of international leading airport operators, seasoned airport investors, leading Pakistan transport and logistics companies, and, leading Pakistan aviation experts.

Airline and airport industry experts said awarding Islamabad Airport through a single bidder process would cause great damage to the national exchequer to the tune if tens of millions of US dollars. They said it is suspicious that all this is done to benefit a favored single company.

“Only two bidders submitted their bids for the project, and we have been kept out of the process whereas the bid of our competitor – a Turkish company – has been accepted,” Danish Janjua maintained. Janjua further said that the CAA office is in Karachi where the blast took place the day before and due to tight security clearance they reached there five minutes later than the first party, adding that all bidders should have been given equal chance.

“We were very hopeful to take up this project. We also visited Islamabad Airport. If the government really wants foreign investment to come into the country, but giving the project to someone else in such a unilateral way, what will be the effect on foreign investors?” he questioned.

Privatization experts said this behavior could damage Pakistan’s future privatizations. Danish Janjua further observed that foreign investors would feel reluctance to come to the country in such an environment, adding that all the process should be transparent.

Janjua said that they had complained to the DG Civil Aviation Authority about this injustice, adding that they would now approach the court against non-transparent bidding. “We had prepared two thousand pages of documents which were to be submitted. The airport authority should have seen that when the vehicle entered the office.” He complained, “If only one company is given a chance for the project, the transparency of the whole process will be questioned. That’s why we are moving to court.”