BRT-Trans Peshawar: KP govt woos officers to withdraw resignations

PESHAWAR: In a bid to save the TransPeshawar and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) from total collapse, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has wooed the key officers who quit the company five days ago to withdraw their resignations.

The News, meanwhile, learnt on good authority that the ousted Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the TransPeshawar, Altaf Akbar Durrani, had decided not to seek any relief following his sacking.

The BRT project and departments associated with this ambitious project of the provincial government were jolted on May 2 when two key officers, Chief Finance Officer Safdar Sher Awan and GM Operations and Market Development Mohammad Imran Khan of the TransPeshawar, main company assigned to operate the system, resigned along with the Chairman of Board and Directors (BoD), Javed Iqbal. They quit in solidarity with the company’s CEO who had been removed by the cabinet.

The News was told by sources on Tuesday that Altaf Akbar Durrani had decided, in principle, not to seek any relief against the provincial cabinet’s decision of his removal. His family sources said he is trying to confirm reservation on the earliest possible flight to Canada where he used to live before taking up the job of CEO.

Altaf Akbar Durrani was earlier asked by the BRT’s main financier, Asian Development Bank (ADB), to wait till their consultation with the chief minister to find a way out for his reinstatement.

He had earlier decided to stay as he was advised by the circles irked by his ouster not to leave so that he could sign relevant documents if a legal remedy was to be attained in the regard. However, he changed his mind on Tuesday and decided to leave for Canada, the sources added.

The provincial government as a stopgap arrangement has assigned the additional charge of the BoD chairman to the additional secretary of the Transport and Mass Transit Department (TMTD) and also co-opted secretary TMTD as member of the board to better manage the matters related to the TransPeshawar and BRT.

Apparently unnerved by the delay in the completion of the project as per its timeline, the provincial government has pursued the chief finance Officer Safdar Sher Awan and GM Operations, Mohammad Imran Khan, who quit in protest against the CEO’s ouster, to withdraw their resignations.

Commissioner of Peshawar, Shahab Ali Shah and secretary TMTD, Kamran Rehman have held meetings with the two officers and assured them of all cooperation in discharge of their duty. Commissioner Peshawar, secretary TMTD and Director General (DG) Peshawar Development Authority (PDA), the executing agency of the BRT project, told a select group of media persons on Monday that selection of the TransPeshawar staff, particularly the CEO, was done on merit and in a transparent manner.

They said the officers were competent enough to carry out their assigned jobs and the delay in procurement of buses occurred only due to lack of coordination among the sectors involved in the production, testing and procurement of the vehicles.