PHC upholds stay in fund utilisation on APS martyrs monument

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday upheld the stay order in utilisation of funds released for construction of the Army Public School (APS) martyrs monument after parents claimed that a bizarre structure was raised by spending a meagre amount.

The petitioners had also expressed fear that the remaining funds may be embezzled.

A single bench headed by Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim Khan sought replies from the respondents including provincial government before January 9, the next date of hearing of the case.

The high court had issued the stay order in the writ petition filed by parents of the APS martyrs including Fazal Khan, Dr Zahoor Alam, Zafar Iqbal Siddiqui and Tariq Jan through their lawyers Mumtaz Khan, Muhammad Ayaz and Shah Muhammad Khan.

During hearing, counsels for the petitioners submitted that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had decided to construct the monument in the name of the children martyred at the Army Public School, Peshawar, on December 16, 2014 when the school was hit by the worst terrorist attack in history.

They informed the bench that the PC1 of the project was approved by the competent authority and a grant of Rs15 million was sanctioned and made available by the provincial government as a project cost.

In the writ petition, the parents claimed that the Directorate of Archives and Libraries started grinding its own axe when it came to know about the allocation of such a handsome amount for the project. .

The petitioners maintained that a revised PC1 was initiated and approved whereby Rs6.6 million was shown to have been allocated for the construction of monument and the allied/miscellaneous matters while an additional item, i.e. purchase of books, was subsequently introduced costing Rs8.3 million or so. .

The petition added that the petitioners being parents of the martyred children took exception to this anomaly and sought indulgence of the court in the matter.

The parents submitted that the originally approved grant of Rs15 million was sanctioned for the monument. They argued that the Peshawar Development Authority was unnecessarily asked to execute the project.

“The bifurcation of Rs6.6 million appropriated for the construction of the monument clearly shows expenditure on unnecessary items and would clearly smoke and recoil malpractices wielded by the respondents,” the petitioners maintained.The parents said they submitted an application to the respondents to provide them the record of the project, but no reply was given. .

The petitioners said they submitted an application to the Right to Information (RTI) Commission, but to no avail. “Being dissatisfied with the conduct and intention of the respondents as well as the groundwork, the petitioners were left with no choice but to approach this court,” it was stated.

In grounds of the petition, it was stated that the respondents were under legal obligation to comply with the original structure and plan of the project in question.

“If one looks at the construction raised, the matter becomes more of concern because the so-called monument is not capable enough to withstand the rigours of weather and climate. It is plastic/fiberglass material and not even fixed at a conspicuous place,” the petition said.

The parents prayed the court to direct the government to reconstruct the Shuhada Monument by spending the sanctioned Rs15 million and to restrain the respondents from spending Rs8.3 million on additional items such as books.