Ship purchase deal with Pakistan cancelled after 34 years

The government has cancelled an agreement on purchasing two container ships worth $50 million from Pakistan for the Bangladesh Shipping Corporation after 34 years of signing the agreement as Pakistan failed to supply the ships.

The assistant secretary of the corporation under the shipping ministry Md Bashir Uddin sent a letter in this regard to 11 relevant ministries and departments on 8 February this year.

The government decided to cancel the agreement on 6 January this year in a cabinet meeting, the letter mentioned.

In the letter, it was mentioned that the government signed an agreement with Pakistan to purchase two container ships and other equipment worth $50 million on 13 October 1988. According to the agreement, the Pakistan government paid the Karachi Shipyard $17.85 million. As there was an allegation of corruption regarding the ship purchase, it was decided to cancel the agreement in a meeting of the advisory council on 20 January 1991.

A decision to purchase other Pakistani commodities worth the same amount instead of the ships was taken in a cabinet meeting on 15 November 1993.

But the shipping ministry informed the economic relations division on 7 August 1995 that there is no need to purchase other commodities from Pakistan with the same amount of money for the BSC except for the ships. 

When asked why it took 34 years to cancel the agreement as per the cabinet division decision, Bashir Uddin of the BSC told The Business Standard that he was unaware of the matter.