Peshawar High Court Nullifies Multi-Million Rupee Health Department Tender Over Bias and Lack of Transparency

Peshawar: The Peshawar High Court has nullified a multimillion-rupee medicine procurement tender issued by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Department, declaring it biased and non-transparent.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Arshad Ali and Justice Khurshid Iqbal issued the verdict while hearing a petition challenging the tendering process.

Petitioner’s counsel, Shumail Ahmad Butt, argued that the contract was awarded to Frontier Dextose Limited, a company that had previously been blacklisted for supplying fake and substandard medicines. He further claimed that procurement rules were deliberately manipulated to benefit the disqualified firm.

The court was presented with laboratory testing reports confirming the dubious reputation of the company.

After reviewing the arguments, the court ruled that a key clause was intentionally omitted from the tender criteria to favor the blacklisted company — a move deemed unlawful and unethical.

The court has ordered the immediate cancellation of the tender and directed the Health Department to restart the procurement process with full transparency and fair competition.

The bench stressed that no corruption or favoritism will be tolerated in purchases made from public funds, adding that favoring blacklisted firms is tantamount to endangering human lives.