Pakistan: Gwadar port contract is ‘confidential’, tells federal secretary informs Senate panel

The secretary said the details of the port could not be revealed publicly.

In 2006, the Pakistani government had signed a contract over Gwadar port with a Singaporean company. It was  later given to a Chinese company in 2013.

The Senate standing committee on finance led by Senator Farooq Hamid Naek on Wednesday had asked federal Secretary of Maritime Affairs Rizwan Ahmed to share copies of contracts and related documents on award of contracts and sub-contracts regarding Gwadar free zone, reported Dawn News.

Rizwan replied that the documents could not be shared with the Senate committee chairman and read out one paragraph from the agreement which says the contents of the agreement will be kept confidential, reported the Pakistan based newspaper.

The standing committee has been discussing the issue for the past three days.

  Senators Dr Musadik Malik, Ayesha Raza, Talha Mehmood and Ateeq Shaikh expressed their anger and displeasure when the secretary said that copies of the contracts could not be shared even with legislatures, Dawn News reported.

The committee chairman even suggested having an in-camera meeting in which copies of the documents would be shared for one hour and then recollected.

The need for the sharing of copies of the contracts was felt when contradictory statements came from the maritime ministry, reported Dawn News.

“We just want to review these contracts to confirm whether these exemptions can be allowed for 40 years,” Senator Naek told the newspaper.