PHC suspends CM’s directives to transfer Torghar funds to other districts

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday suspended directives of chief minister about the transfer of Rs260 million allocated in the Annual Development Programme (ADP) for Torghar to other districts.

A division bench comprising Justice Ikramullah Khan and Justice Muhammad Ayub Khan restrained the provincial government from the allocation of the funds to other districts till next order of the court.

The bench stayed the transfer of the funds allocated for the Torghar district in a writ petition filed by Awami National Party (ANP) Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) from constituency PK-35, Laik Muhammad Khan. He had sought an order of the court to declare the chief minister’s directives illegal as he was transferring the funds due to political discrimination because the only MPA of the district belonged to the opposition political party, ANP.

During the hearing, Babar Khan Yousafzai, counsel for the petitioner, submitted before the bench that the provincial government had announced the special developmental package for the people of the highly less developed district in the ADP for the year 2018-19. He said the government announced the special package for the district as it was severely affected by the October 8, 2005 earthquake and its infrastructure was affected.

The lawyer submitted that officially Torghar was carved out of Mansehra in 2011 and since then least development work was carried out in the district.

Surprisingly, he submitted that on December 14, 2018, a letter was issued by the chief minister with the directives to stop funds to the Torghar district.

The lawyer explained that the letter stated that the ADP schemes funds had been stopped to the Torghar district and re-appropriated to other schemes given by the Chief Minister’s Secretariat.

Babar Yousafzai argued that the impugned letter was illegal, without lawful authority and unconstitutional.

The petitioner prayed the court to declare the impugned letter as void and the funds allocated for special development package for Torghar district be continued for the welfare of the people. The court after suspending the directives of the chief minister stayed the transfer of funds. It issued notices to the provincial government through chief secretary, secretary to the chief minister and secretary for the Planning and Development Department. The officials were directed to submit comments in the case before the next hearing.