KP govt, opposition at loggerheads over projects inauguration

Section 144 imposed in Mardan to bar elected reps from inaugurating projects

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led government and some of the opposition parties in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are at loggerhead over inauguration of newly built schemes, mostly schools and roads in their respective constituencies.

In Mardan district, where Deputy Commissioner Dr Imran Sheikh had imposed Section 144 and barred all the public representatives from inaugurating the newly built projects without prior permission, two opposition members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly faced embarrassment when the local administration used force and stopped them from inaugurating two schools.

The local administration took notice and moved the police and armoured personnel carriers (APCs) last week when MPA Gohar Ali Shah of the Awami National Party (ANP) inaugurated a recently built school in Faqir Killay in Qasami area of PK-28 constituency.

Gohar Ali Shah alleged that the Deputy Commissioner Imran Sheikh called him and spoke to him in a warning tone.

“The deputy commissioner asked me as to why I inaugurated the school building without his prior permission. I told him the school had been upgraded with my funds and that was the reason I inaugurated it,” Gohar Ali Shah told The News.

He said the Mardan district administration sent heavy contingents of police and APCs to stop him and his supporters from inaugurating the school building but the event had ended by then.

Several attempts were made to approach Deputy Commissioner Imran Sheikh by making phone calls and sending text messages to his cell phone but he avoided to comment on the matter.

A senior police officer in Mardan said the district administration imposed Section 144 on the directives of the chief minister and stopped all public representatives from inaugurating projects without prior permission.

A similar incident took place in Takht Bhai concerning another opposition MPA Jamshed Mohmand.

Jamshed Mohmand won election as an independent candidate from PK-27 and then started supporting the PTI government in the province.

However, he developed differences with PTI leadership and recently joined Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

The PTI MPA from PK-26, Iftikhar Ali Mushwani told The News that the Education Department provided funds for reconstruction of the school after some PTI activists submitted an application for the purpose.

He said the school was under construction when MPA Jamshed Mohmand went there to inaugurate it and told the local people that he had arranged funds from his annual development programme to rebuild the building.

He said Jamshed Mohmand had neither obtained permission from the Education Department to inaugurate the school nor provided funds.

Interestingly, when Education Minister Mohammad Atif recently went there to inaugurate the school building, some PML-N workers gathered and reportedly tried to sabotage the event.Mohammad Atif told The News that they had never objected whenever PML-N leader Amir Muqam inaugurated projects completed with funds from the federal government.He said the opposition MPAs didn’t even wait for completion of the projects built with funds provided by the provincial government and inaugurated incomplete schemes.