Govt takes up plea of sacked CEO of TransPeshawar

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government through the Transport and Mass Transit Department (TMTD) on Thursday processed the plea for reinstatement submitted by former chief executive officer (CEO) of the TransPeshawar who was sacked by the previous Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.

The TransPeshawar has been assigned to operate the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in Peshawar.

The PTI government on May 2 removed Altaf Durrani, CEO TransPeshawar, for his alleged lethargy to procure buses for the BRT. The project was incomplete at the time, but Chief Minister Pervez Khattak wanted to inaugurate it even if it was partially complete to claim credit for giving a modern transport system to the provincial capital before the July 2018 general election.

The decision to remove CEO of TransPeshawar was taken at the cabinet meeting on April 19. He was removed under Section 190 (2) of the Companies Act 2017.

The summary seeking his removal said: “Chief Minister Pervez Khattak briefed the cabinet (on April 19) regarding the consistent poor performance and inability to meet the assigned timelines for the task, regarding the delivery of bus fleet, Intelligence Transportation System and vehicles operating companies procurements, of the CEO TransPeshawar.”

Altaf Durrani in his letter to the Board of Directors of the TransPeshawar on May 4 stated that based on the requirements of the Asian Development Bank’s procurement procedures and the pace of the civil infrastructure work, the timeline for the buses procurement was unrealistic and unjustified.

He noted that he had informed the Board of Directors of the high level cost impact of early procurement of the buses and other risks, which added up to approximately Rs2 billion per year.

Altaf Durrani at the time of his removal decided not to seek any relief against his sacking.

However, sources in the TMTD told The News on Thursday that the sacked CEO had filed a mercy appeal for his reinstatement to the caretaker chief minister and submitted it to the acting CEO of TransPeshawar on July 2 to process it through proper channel.

The sources also provided a copy of the application of Altaf Durrani to this scribe and said that secretary TMDT Kamran Rehman had processed the case for sending it to the chief minister, who will take the final decision in the matter.