The situation unfolded when Dawn’s senior reporter Khaleeq Kiani questioned the government’s decision to award the Rs300 billion Mohmand dam project on a \u201csingle\u201d financial bid of a consortium comprising three firms \u2014 Descon, the company owned by the Prime Minister\u2019s Adviser on Commerce and Industry Razzaq Daud, China Gezhouba and Voith Hydro.<\/p>\n
The bidding process of the dam was made controversial by the government when it considered the \u201csingle\u201d financial bid of the consortium comprising Descon, China Gezhouba and Voith Hydro, while a consortium consisting of Frontier Works Organisation (FWO), Andritz Hydro and Power China was technically disqualified and its financial bid was not considered.<\/p>\n
Read: Bidding process for Mohmand dam project sparks controversy<\/p>\n
As the press conference started on Wednesday, reporter Khaleeq Kiani reminded the minister how his party had criticised an LNG deal during the PML-N government on the basis that it was awarded on a single-bid basis.<\/p>\n
“Your party had strongly criticised the LNG deal because it was done on single-bid basis, and now your government has awarded the contract of Mohmand dam on a single-bid basis. How can you say it is legitimate?”<\/p>\n
Vawda did not take the query kindly, saying: “I could have expected such a question from Dawn only. I am not responsible for something that happened before my birth.<\/p>\n
“How can I be responsible for [those] contracts’ bidding that took place when this government wasn’t in place? Secondly, if you find a controversy or want to concoct one, then this is open. You can investigate this as you like it.<\/p>\n
“Because you are my elder I am answering this question. If this was someone else, I would not have answered and also set aside the mic.”<\/p>\n
At this, the reporters at the press conference objected to his choice of words and started walking out in solidarity with Kiani.<\/p>\n
The minister, in a bid to placate the media personnel, immediately issued an apology and struck a courteous tone. “Please hear my request, I apologise to you over this. Journalists are my brothers and friends.”<\/p>\n
Vawda’s attempts were to no avail as the reporters and cameramen staged a walkout in protest.<\/p>\n
In the same presser, the minister had said he would not be appearing before the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee on a short notice as “I am not anyone’s baap ka naukar (servant of anyone’s father)”.<\/p>\n
“If you call someone for his viewpoint or suggestion, you give him 15 to 20 days; there is a procedure that exists,” he said. “If someone, especially an accused who comes from jail, gives me a one-day notice, [I will not attend].<\/p>\n
“I will not allow political point scoring. We will allow PAC to do its job and are bound to inform the PAC. But if my ministry receives a letter on Monday morning asking me to answer on Tuesday, then I will not tolerate this and my ministry will not appear.”<\/p>\n
Last year, Vawda was in the news for his fiery temper when he had been involved in a heated exchange with PML-N leader and former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi over allegations of water theft.<\/p>\n
Vawda had warned that if that if there was theft, he would use “non-parliamentary” language and that his actions would also be “non-parliamentary”.<\/p>\n
He alleged that the PML-N had “stolen” from all organisations, to which Abbasi had taken offence, saying: “Look at his tone and his choice of words.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The situation unfolded when Dawn’s senior reporter Khaleeq Kiani questioned the government’s decision to award the Rs300 billion Mohmand dam project on a \u201csingle\u201d financial bid of a consortium comprising three firms \u2014 Descon, the company owned by the Prime Minister\u2019s Adviser on Commerce and Industry Razzaq Daud, China Gezhouba and Voith Hydro. The bidding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}