The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has challenged the Peshawar High Court judgment on Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project in the apex court.
KPK Chief Secretary, Secretary Local Government & Rural Development and Secretary Transport Department on Tuesday jointly filed an appeal under Article 185(3) of Constitution against Fazli Karim Khan and others, DG Peshawar Development Authority and Project Director Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).
They urged the Supreme Court to grant leave to appeal against the Peshawar High Court impugned order dated 14-11-2019.
The petitioners alleged that the respondent No 1 (Fazli Karim Khan) filed a writ petition before the Peshawar High Court wherein he challenged the construction and erection of station 31 of ongoing BRT project on grounds that it has blocked the entrance to his house and devalued the property and sought its removal.
The PHC while accepting the writ petition without adverting to the relief asked for by the respondent No.1 formulated 35 points in shape of questions and directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for investigation and inquiry in disregard of law.
The petitioners submitted that a similar writ petition (4217/2017) was filed before the PHC in 2017 which was dismissed vide the judgment and order dated 07-12-2017 by the then chief justice of the High Court. Astoundingly CM No. 847-P/2018 regarding some transfer matter was filed in the already dismissed writ petition (4217/2017) wherein the PHC directed NAB to conduct investigation and inquiry into the RBT project vide judgment stated 17-07-2018, which was impugned before the august court, wherein the Supreme Court granting leave to appeal suspended the impugned judgment of PHC by maintaining the status quo.
However, the PHC without considering the matter in dispute pending before the apex court again passed the impugned judgment and order dated 14-11-19 to writ petition No. 2520-/2019.
The judgment revealed that a letter/report (without mentioning the same) has been reproduced in the impugned judgment and while copying the text even the 'flag' that was mentioned in such letter/report was not omitted and has been incorporated in the judgment.
The PHC judgment has observed that due to the improper planning, the short-term project was revised with a 35% increase in cost and some of its components were abnormally increased by 237% (Package 6), 200% (Package-9) and 147% (Package-4). This is testimony of poor planning for the project by the consulting firm with provincial government at the receiving end.
The project has grossly been mishandled and mismanaged from inception by the provincial government officials and thus so far three project directors were replaced, the High Court judgment said.
The project was initially conceived and reflected in ADP 2011-12 by the coalition government of ANP and PPP. The PTI government initially ignored the project; however, they started spadework in January 2017 through a transport authority by Asian Development Bank. This was a 'face-saving' project by the PTI government, which ultimately had adverse effects on provincial coffers and tremendous inconvenience for the inhabitants of Peshawar, it added.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2019