PHC orders halt to commercial activities in University Town

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday directed the provincial government and Town-III administration to stop commercial activities in the University Town before October 18 or else face contempt of court proceedings.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Musarrat Hilali gave a last chance to the provincial government and Town-III administration to comply with court orders.

The bench ordered the provincial government and Town-III administration to stop commercial activities in the University Town by closing educational institutions, private hospitals and offices of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) before October 18 and submit a report in the court.

The court asked the legal advisor of Town-III and additional advocate general to covey court directives to the officials concerned. The court said they would face contempt of court proceedings in case of non-compliance.

The court issued the directives in a contempt of court petition filed by Miss Neelofar, Dr Khushnood Ali Khan and Sadia Sarwat Durrani, residents of University Town, through their lawyer Qazi Jawad Ihsanullah.

The petitioners sought implementation of the PHC decision.On September 26, 2013, the PHC directed the Town-III and district administration to seal all the buildings, including houses, plazas and bungalows in the University Town that were built for residential purposes, but were being used for commercial activities.

At the previous hearing, the court stopped a committee of the provincial government that had been tasked with pointing out residential areas in the University Town for conversion into commercial ones.

The lawyer for the petitioners submitted that despite the high court’s directions, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government formed a committee and tasked it with making recommendations and pointing out areas in the University Town for declaring them to be commercial areas.

Qazi Jawad said the action of the provincial government was violation of the court’s decision and it had committed a contempt of court. Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth observed the provincial government was introducing amendments to save the commercial institutions in the University Town despite the fact that the PHC had ordered it to stop the commercial activities.

He observed that the court had only given four months for educational institutions to move to other places after holding examinations, but the government instead of implementing court orders tried to make amendments to render court orders ineffective.

Town-III administration legal advisor Sabahuddin Khattak submitted the district administration took action to comply with court orders, but it had limited powers. He said electricity and gas connections had been cut off from commercial buildings and institutions, but the officials of the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) and Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) restored them after two days.

He said the administration had issued notices to the Iranian Consulate and NGOs for vacating the buildings, but they didn’t come in its domain as the federal and provincial governments were supposed to take action.

To this, Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth observed that the court wanted implementation of its decisions.

An official of the Town-III administration said the United Nations had approached the federal government to retain its offices in University Town in Peshawar after receiving notices from the Town-III administration to move out of the residential locality.

The official said the Town-III administration had given deadline from time to time to dozens offices of the UN agencies and international NGOs to vacate their offices.