PHC stays construction work on roads identified by nazim in Battagram

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday stayed work on the construction of roads identified and recommended by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) district nazim in Battagram for the Annual Development Programme (ADP) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Ikramullah Khan issued the stay order in a writ petition filed by a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker from Battagram district.

The PML-N MPA, Wali Muhammad Khan, had challenged the PTI-led provincial government’s decision to allocate funds of the MPAs-approved schemes in the ADP for the ones identified by the PTI district nazim in Battagram.

The bench also issued notice to Chief Minister Pervez Khattak through his principal staff officer, the provincial government through chief secretary, secretaries Finance, Planning and Development and Communications and Works and district nazim Battagram. The respondents were directed to submit reply before the next hearing on December 22.

During the hearing, the petitioner’s lawyer Barrister Babar Shahzad Imran, submitted before the bench that unlike the previous provincial governments, the PTI government had unfortunately continued with the recriminatory policies to pressure the opposition members to refrain from criticising its policies and lure them to support the government.

The lawyer argued that allocation of funds for the approved schemes in the ADP was the domain of the MPAs and not of the district representatives. He said the chief minister approved the developmental schemes identified by the PTI district nazim in the ADP. “It is not only against the law and rules, but also amounts to pre-poll rigging whereby funds are given to the ruling party’s local government representatives to influence voters under the garb of the projects,”.

The lawyer argued that the petitioner along with Shah Hussain Khan, MPA from PK-60 constituency in Allai tehsil of Battagram, got approved schemes from the provincial budget.

He added that construction, improvement and blacktopping of internal road of Battagram tehsil, Thakot-Bana Road through Kalay Koz Cheena had been put in the ADP 2015-2016 costing Rs250 million, but only Rs30 million were allocated to the project.

The lawyer contended that on July 22 last year the executive engineer of the Communication and Works Department wrote a letter to the petitioner to communicate the detailed scope of work and identify feasible sites to process the PC-1 of the road project and this was done accordingly.

However, he informed the bench that the chief minister wrote a letter on October 5, 2015 to additional chief secretary, Planning and Development Department approving the application of the district nazim Battagram for construction of the internal roads of district Battagram as per the ADP schemes.

The lawyer submitted that recently on November 24, 2016 the C & W Department issued an advertisement inviting bids for the tenders for the same projects on December 13 identified by the District Nazim in violation of the law and rules on the subject.

The lawyer submitted in the court that though the tender process would be done, the work on the construction of the roads be stopped till disposal of the petition.

The PML-N lawmaker in his petition said the PTI-led government had adopted the policy of ‘carrot and stick’ with the result that opposition lawmakers had joined the ruling party or were supporting it in the assembly and in consideration thereof were receiving personal favours and approval of their development schemes.