Turkish firm moves ICSID over row with Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: Turkish construction company Bayindir has once again approached the International Centre for Setlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) against Pakistan.
The Ankara-registered firm filed a claim under the 1995 Turkey-pakistan bilateral investment treaty at ICSID on Oct.12.
The Turkish firm has hired three law firms - Jones Swanson Huddell & Daschbach and Fishman Haygood in New Orleans, and Kabine Law in Istanbul - to fight the case against Pakistan.
Details of the case are scarce but the ICSID website says the mater is related to the construction of a highway project.
Earlier in 2003, Bayindir had lost its claim against Pakistan at ICSID which was filed under the same bilateral investment treaty (BIT) between Pakistan and Turkey.
That case related to a contract to build a sixlane motorway between Islamabad and Peshawar.
The Turkish firm back then claimed that it had been expelled from the project unfairly.
A tribunal chaired by Switzerland’s Gabrielle Kaufmann-kohler with the UK’S Franklin Berman and Germany’s Karl-heinz Böckstiegel dismissed the firm’s claim and ruled in favour of Pakistan in 2009.
The new case will be unwelcome news for Pakistan, which is still fighting to annul a $5.9 billion penalty imposed by ICSID in 2019 in the Reko Diq gold mines case.
In 2019, Pakistan setled a billion dollar ICSIC award in favour of another Turkish investor, energy company Karkey Karadeniz, without making any payment. That dispute concerned the cancellation of a short-term electricity contract and seizure of Karkey’s vessels amid allegations of corruption.
Bayindir has filed a case against Pakistan for the second time on the alleged violation of Pak-turk Investment Treaty.
However, details in this regard are not available yet. Pakistan will vigorously pursue the case before ICSID, said an official.
Likewise, in 2019, Pakistan setled a billiondollar ICSID award in favour of another Turkish investor, energy company Karkey Karadeniz, without making any payment.