PHC directs EPA to submit comprehensive report

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday directed the director general of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to submit a comprehensive report about the impact of the Bus Rapid Transit project on environment in the city.

A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Roohul Amin Khan sought report from the EPA DG on the next hearing.

The bench told the EPA DG to inform the court if procedures have been adopted before the start of the project under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Environmental Protection Act 2014.

EPA DG Dr Bashir Khan informed the bench that proper no-objection certificate (NOC) was issued for completion of the project as per the law.

He submitted that the EPA had also arranged a public hearing in Nishtar Hall about impact of the project and 600 citizens had attended that and discussed all aspects of the project. A NOC was then issued with recommendations.

KP Advocate General Abdul Latif Yousafzai also appeared and informed the bench that it was a mega public important project.

He said the BRT project was also discussed in the assembly when proper act was going to pass for the project, but no one raised any objection on it.

Latif Yousafzai said that proper legislation was made for the project to give it legal cover and National Finance Commission had also approved Rs47 billion for it.

He argued that everything had been done in accordance with law and no illegality was committed as claimed by the petitioner.

The bench was hearing a petition jointly filed by former provincial minister Maulana Amanullah Haqqani and a Peshawar resident Wali Khan. They claimed that the bus service initiative was illegal as the procedural formalities provided in the Constitution and other laws were not fulfilled for its execution.

During the course of hearing, Mohammad Isa Khan, counsel for the petitioner, submitted that several laws and rules were not followed for execution of the project.

He pointed out that the government did not impose section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 before starting the project as 350 properties of people would come in way of the bus service.

The counsel raised a question that the provincial government did not take the district government Peshawar into confidence while finalizing the project.