On the writ petition filed by four members of NWFP Assembly against the former Chief Minister Akram Durrani, the Peshawar High Court on Wednesday issued notice to the NWFP Chief Minister and sought written comments from him as to explain the distribution of funds within 10 days.
The MPA in their writ petition had challenged the distribution of funds among the MPAs arguing that Chief Minister had made 'unjust' distribution of MPAs funds worth Rs 1,240 million under the government's Tameer-e-Sarhad Programme for 2007-08.
A PHC two-member bench comprising Justices Ejaz Afzal and Dost Mohammad Khan when took up the petition, deputy advocate general failed to submit written comments on behalf of the Chief Minister.
On this the bench directed the Chief Minister through DAG Sardar Ali Raza to submit its written comments within 10 days and fixed October 23, for next hearing of the case. In previous hearings, the court had sought written comments from NWFP Chief Minister Akran Khan Durrani in the writ petition, but he had failed in comply with the court orders.
However, after NWFP Assembly dissolution the AG office would submit written comments on behalf of the provincial chief executive to the petition. Four members of the NWFP Assembly had moved the Peshawar High Court against what they called an unjust distribution of MPAs' funds worth Rs 1,240 million under the government's Tameer-e-Sarhad Programme for 2007-08.
Four MPAs - former NWFP Assembly deputy speaker and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam MPA Akramullah Shahid and Jamaat-e-Islami MPA Pir Mohammad Khan from the treasury benches and Pakistan Muslim League-Q's Zar Gul Khan and Saeed Khan from the opposition benches submitted their writ petition through Barrister Masood Kauser advocate at the PHC writ branch.
They made the NWFP chief minister, chief secretary, and secretaries of the finance and planning and development departments as respondents in the writ petition. The MPAs, in their writ petition, stated that NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani was 'indifferent' to both treasury and opposition members in Tameer-e-Sarhad Programme, which was adversely affecting their constituencies.
"Under the annual development programmes (ADP) for 2007-08, the chief minister is bound to equally distribute the Tameer-e-Sarhad Programme funds among all 124 members of the House, they added.
They claimed that the chief minister had allocated funds through an 'unjust formula'. Akram Durrani, they said, allocated Rs 30 million to each member of the JUI-F and JI for development works in their respective constituencies.
They added that chief of the House allocated Rs 10 million to each member of the ANP and PPPP, while members of PPP-S and PML-Q received Rs 5 million each. They also said the chief minister had 'completely ignored' all the four petitioners in the funds distribution, thus violating the assembly's rules but doing an injustice to population of the relevant constituencies.
Further, they said the NWFP government had also mixed the assembly members special package worth Rs 1,000 million in the Tameer-e-Sarhad Programme, which, they added, were being spent through the JUI-F and JI MPAs. They requested the court to stop the NWFP government from constructing the Qazi Public School, Haqqani Public School, Akram Durrani Public School, Mufti Mahmood Public School and Sirajul Haq Public School.