Govt decision on New Balakot City project opposed

MANSEHRA: The members of the apex committee constituted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan have rejected the federal cabinet’s decision to change New Balakot City housing project into an economic zone.

“The apex court in its ruling in January this year had asked the federal government to release Rs1 billion immediately to the project and complete this project within 30 months but the prime minister, instead of releasing this money, wants to create economic zone, which is unacceptable to us,” Munir Hussain Lughmani advocate told reporters here on Wednesday. The federal cabinet on Tuesday discussed in details the establishment of an economic zone in New Balakot city housing project with a public-private partnership. Lughmani, who is also a former president of the district bar association, said that the survivors settled in the red zone of Balakot were living a miserable life in small prefabricated houses but the federal government instead of completing the scheme was depriving them of this land. “The survivors have been living in the prefabricated houses since the devastating earthquake of 2005 but work on the housing project couldn’t be completed even after 14 years,” he said.