Islamabad - Capital police have registered a first information report (FIR) against an accused Sadia Hayat on the complaint of Ambassador of Tajikistan for providing bogus insurance bonds for striking an agreement with the Tajik embassy.
A police official of Shalimar police station informed The Nation here on Sunday that FIR was registered on the complaint of Sherali Jononov, ambassador of Republic of Tajikistan in Pakistan.
He further said that police had registered the case after an additional district and sessions judge and justice of peace Islamabad Wajid Ali issued the directions in this regard on the petition of Tajik ambassador who had filed the petition under Section 22-A Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
However, Sadia Hayat, who is partner and lead architect of Montage Design Build (MDB), has refuted all the allegations and termed them as baseless.
She said that MDB had been working with Tajik embassy since April 2013 on the design and development of the embassy complex in Diplomatic Enclave Islamabad.
Sadia further informed that in April 2014, an agreement was signed between the two parties to design the complex and develop a design-build contract based on the final design/drawings. “Montage Design-build performed all works according to the scope of work in the agreement, for the construction of new Tajikistan Embassy Complex in Islamabad, except the CDA approvals and applying for connection of utilities. This was not possible as the embassy could not provide necessary documentation for the purpose. However in July 2014, the embassy awarded the work to a civil contract in a clear breach of the contract and basis for the working relationship,” added the architect.
She has continued that in construction projects, the employer is required to appoint a supervising consultant who makes sure that design and specifications are being followed in letter and spirit. Supervising consultant is an integral part of the construction team while the embassy also failed to appoint a supervising consultant as the ambassador of Tajikistan wanted to supervise the construction himself, for reasons best known to him. “These points became a major dispute between the Montage and the embassy of Tajikistan,” she maintained.
Moreover, Sadia informed that the existing agreement between the parties did not include site supervision. As a result, Montage Design-build refused to sign form A-2 of CDA which requires architect to supervise the construction also.
“To penalise Montage Design-build, the ambassador not only applied for the encashment of insurance / mobilisation bond provided by Montage, but also pressurised police to register an FIR against her,” she said.
She said that on the other hand, civil court has also restrained the embassy from using Montage’s drawings and design for construction, which the ambassador has not complied with.
In reply to a question, Sadia answered that no double-A rated company was agreed to issue a guarantee to an architect and that too for 80 per cent advance. “Therefore, guarantee from single-A company was issued with the consent of the ambassador.
Moreover, the guarantee was issued first and payment was released one week later,” she maintained.
She continued that the embassy verified this, like all other documents submitted to it and now, the ambassador was pressurising the Montage to sign the CDA forms.
The architect also told that she had obtained bail before arrest from the sessions court and the case was still pending before the court.
Previously, a local court had directed station house officer (SHO) Shalimar Police Station to register an FIR against the accused Sadia Hayat on the petition of ambassador of Tajikistan for providing bogus insurance bonds to him for striking an agreement with the Tajik Embassy.
The Tajik ambassador had moved the court through his lawyers Barrister Afzal Hussain and Malik Irfan Elahi Advocates seeking direction for the SHO of the police station Shalimar for registration of criminal case against Sadia Hayat, partner Montage Design-build, since the SHO had not registered the FIR against the accused on the complaint dated 10-09-2014 filed by the ambassador.
The counsel for petitioner Ambassador Sherali Jononov maintained before the learned justice of peace that the SHO under section 154 of the Criminal Procedure Code was legally bound to register FIR against Sadia Hayat; however, the SHO had not complied with the statutory duty and the justice of peace is empowered under the law to direct the police to register an FIR against the proposed accused and proceed against her in accordance with law.
After hearing the arguments and perusal of comments submitted by the police, Justice of Peace Wajid Ali directed the SHO to register the case against the accused lady.
In his verdict, the judge noted, “Briefly stated facts of the petition are that the petitioner is ambassador of the Republic of Tajikistan in Pakistan. On 24-04-2014, petitioner entered into an agreement with the proposed accused and as per agreement, proposed accused was obliged to submit an insurance bond from an insurance company having at least AA rating from PACRA/JCR in favour of the embassy to the extent of US $97,000. However, the proposed accused deceptively and fraudulently submitted an insurance bond for Rs 9,506,000 from a company that was not “AA” rated insurance company. On 05-05-2014 due to submission of insurance/indemnity bond by the proposed accused, the petitioner issued full amount of US $123,000 to the proposed accused.”
The judgement further says: “Thereafter, the petitioner came to know about the exact status of the insurance company when proposed accused committed fraud and did not fulfil the obligations under the agreement dated 24-04-2014. The petitioner reported the matter to the local police but no action was taken so far.”
Then, the justice of peace held that the petition under section 22-A CrPC is accepted and the SHO concerned (PS Shalimar, Islamabad) is directed to register the FIR as per allegations of the petitioner and thereafter investigate the matter in accordance with law and disposed of the petition.