MPA moves PHC against KP govt for dropping development scheme

Expelled PTI lawmaker accuses CM of discrimination

PESHAWAR: Lawmaker Ziaullah Afridi on Monday moved the Peshawar High Court (PHC) against Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and the provincial government for allegedly dropping a development scheme of Rs970 million for the provincial capital from the Annual Development Programme (ADP) 2015-16.

Ziaullah Afridi, a former provincial minister who was expelled from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) after his arrest by the Ehtesab Commission on corruption charges, filed the writ petition in the high court through his lawyer Shumail Ahmad Butt.

The chief minister through principal secretary, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government through secretary for Planning and Development, Local Government Department secretary, nazim of Town-1 Peshawar and Tehsil Municipal Officer of Town-1 Peshawar were made parties to the petition.

“The petitioner being elected member of this constituency worked indefatigably for day and night for the betterment of the inhabitants of Peshawar in general and PK-1 in particular. He requested the provincial government to include a scheme for the betterment of PK-1 in the name of “Integrated Development Package for Mahal Terai and surrounding areas of Peshawar,” the petition noted.

“After acknowledging economic impact, feasibility, cost-benefit analysis and examining it in rigorous process of finalisation of budget, the scheme was approved by the cabinet to be included in the ADP. It was presented for final approval before the provincial assembly during its budget session,” the petitioner said.

Resultantly, the petition said, the scheme was made part of budget as ADP Scheme No. 782 (2015-16) and was passed by a definite majority of the elected members of the provincial assembly.

It said the scheme, so passed, comprised of a number of pro-poor social service delivery activities consisting of roads, sanitation projects, water supply schemes, school buildings, rehabilitation of streets and roads that are in deplorable conditions and other services to be identified by representatives of the constituency.

“After fulfilling all codal formalities and detailed bureaucratic effort, Rs27.9 million was approved and Rs 3,6 million have been paid to the Engineering Architecture Consultants for starting work on the feasibility and designing,” the petition maintained.

It said the consultants later submitted PC-1, which included water supply schemes, sanitation, roads and filtration plants at the cost of Rs970 million as it is the need of the day for inhabitants of Peshawar.

The petition claimed that the petitioner because of his rise in the party was conceived as a threat and was included in the bad books of the chief minister. “To teach the petitioner a lesson and deprive his constituency of any development work respondent No 2 (chief minister) without having authority with a single stroke of pen through executive order dropped the ADP scheme, which was passed by 124 elected members of the Provincial Assembly,” the petitioner submitted before the court.

It said the chief minister without assigning cogent or plausible reason the dropped the scheme in a so-called mid-year review meeting held on June 10, 2016.

The petition claimed that in the review meeting the rest of the projects discussed in the meeting were not only retained in the ADP but were awarded additional hundreds of millions of rupees because these belonged to the constituencies of the chief minister’s political favourites.

It was submitted in the grounds of the petition that dropping the scheme in question was clear violation of the provisions of the constitution and was thus illegal, without lawful authority and of no legal effect. It said the people of Peshawar, particularly of PK-1, were subjected to discrimination. The petition stated that the chief minister cannot deprive the inhabitants of Peshawar of their rights and development work passed as an ADP scheme. The court was requested to declare dropping of the scheme without lawful authority and issue direction for restoring it.