PHC stops KP govt from gas, oil distribution

PESHAWAR: A division bench of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday stopped the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government from the use and distribution of natural gas and oil royalty of Kohat and Karak in the upcoming budget.

A division bench comprising Justice Syed Afsar Shah and Justice Abdul Shakoor restrained the provincial government from distribution of gas and oil royalty in a writ petition filed by former provincial minister from Karak, Sher Azam Wazir, and Sher Dad Khan.

The petitioners requested in the petition that the provincial government be retrained from using and distribution of the gas and oil royalty of the districts in the coming budget for the years 2018-19 as they feared to be used and distributed to other districts of the province.

During hearing, the petitioners’ lawyer Yasir Khattak submitted that the federal government had first allocated 5 percent royalty on gas and oil production in the two districts and increased it to 10 percent in 2013.

He informed the bench that the government had not paid the royalty for the financial years 2016-17 and 2017-18. In the year 2015-16, he added, the government had only paid 25 percent royalty in the 10 percent annual royalty to the districts.

He informed the bench that the petitioners have information that the provincial government is going to allocate and distribute the royalty in the upcoming budget for the year 2018-19 within two days. He stated that the provincial government has no authority to distribute or allocate royalty as there is a proper procedure and is distributed through a committee headed by chief secretary of the province and the concerned departments for allocation of funds for the developmental projects in the districts are Local Government and Rural Development Department.

The court, after hearing arguments, issued stay order and restrained the provincial government from distribution and use of the royalty in the budget till the next order of the court.

The court also issued a notice to the provincial government, federal government and finance department to submit comments in the case.