BRT project echoes in KP Assembly: Opposition members slam govt for bid to stop probe

PESHAWAR: The much-publicised Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project once again echoed in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Friday as the opposition termed it the root cause of the traffic mess in the provincial metropolis and reiterated the demand for a parliamentary committee to probe the project.

The opposition condemned the government for trying to halt the inquiry into the project by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). Initiating the debate, opposition leader Muhammad Akram Khan Durrani said the provincial government had put the people of Peshawar in trouble and mental torture by launching the BRT.

He said due to the BRT traffic remains jammed daily and business has come to a standstill. Alleging billions of rupees corruption in the project, he questioned why the government was trying to stop the FIA from the inquiry and went to the Supreme Court.

He asked why it was not ready to constitute a parliamentary committee if there was no corruption in the project, adding institutions were silent over the alleged corruption. Taking part in the debate, Ahmad Kareem Kundi of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) said that traffic problem in the city had deteriorated due to the wrong designing and ill planning in the BRT. He said that due to the nexus of the government and contractors, the BRT cost had reached Rs100 billion. The lawmaker said the government spokesman Shaukat Yousufzai's statement of benefit in the project due to increase in dollar rate could be the version of the contractor, not of a government representative. He said the province had gone into billions of rupees debt because of the BRT.

Salahuddin of the Awami National Party (ANP) said the PTI had done irreparable damage to people in the name of BRT. The PTI minister should tell on oath if they were satisfied with the project, he posed a question.

Mir Kalam, an independent member, said that even for construction of a bathroom in a house, one has to prepare a design but the PTI government wasted billions of rupees got through loan and put burden on people of the province.

Terming the BRT as the root cause of traffic and other problems in the provincial capital, he said that people wanted their old Pakistan and had got fed up with the hollow slogan of the "Naya Pakistan". The legislator said that ministers were not even attending the assembly session and the seats of treasury members were lying vacant, which showed how much the government was serious. He also pinpointed the quorum leading to adjournment of the session till Monday.

Taking notice of the ministers' absence, Speaker Mushtaq Ghani advised the assembly secretariat to daily send the attendance sheet of ministers and members to the chief minister.

He said it was ironic that only three out of 16 ministers were present in the hall. If the government cannot maintain the quorum, then it should not convene the assembly session, he remarked.

Mushtaq Ghani ruled that the government officers, having two official accommodation facilities, should vacate one within 30 days. He directed the Establishment Department to get vacated one out of the two official residences in such cases and submit him a report within a month.

The House also admitted an adjournment motion of Awami National Party's Waqar Khan about the imposition of taxes in Malakand division. The mover said that despite exemption for five years, taxes were being collected from the consumers in electricity and gas bills and traders were being asked for NTS certificates in the erstwhile Fata and Pata areas.

Law Minister Sultan Muhammad supported the motion, saying the areas were exempted from tax. Earlier, the House paid tribute to former prime minister Shaheed Benazir Bhutto on her 12th death anniversary and collective Dua was offered for her soul. Opposition leader Akram Khan Durrani, Law Minister Sultan Muhammad, PPP's Ahmad Kundi and Nighat Orakzai said Benazir Bhutto was a great leader and her services for democracy would be remembered. They said the sacrifices of the Bhutto family were matchless.