Abdul Hakeem Mohmand
PESHAWAR: The opposition PPP provincial assembly member, Nighat Orakzai, on Friday urged the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) chairman to initiate probe into the alleged corruption charges in the recently launched Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project in Peshawar.
Orakzai said that the PPP provincial leadership had filed a written complaint with the NAB, Islamabad, in April 2019, seeking investigation into the alleged corruption.
The PPP leader said that the NAB chairman had assured the party leadership that the bureau would start investigation into the alleged kickbacks and commissions following the completion of the project. “Now the prime minister has inaugurated the project, the anti-graft body should start the inquiry,” she said.
The PPP leaders, including former deputy speaker National Assembly, Faisal Karim Kundi, Akhunzada Chattan, PPP provincial president Humayun Khan, Sher Azam Wazir, Ijaz Durrani and Nighat Orakzai, had submitted a complaint before the NAB chairman, Justice (r) Javed Iqbal, claiming that authorities had illegally made big bucks in the BRT Peshawar.
Ms Orakzai said that a project of six billion rupees in the name of road widening, green belts development and designated U-turns was started to improve flow of traffic and to make the city beautiful by the PTI’s previous government but later they had launched a BRT project on the same route, causing inconveniences to the masses with heavy traffic jams and pollution. Billions of rupees were wasted and the traffic problem, instead of being resolved , was made more complicated.
She claimed that the current government has failed to complete the project within the stipulated time and the cost of the project had escalated to the tune of more than Rs120 billion. Reports of provincial inspection team also pointed out irregularities in award of contract, she said.
The woman legislator further said that the government has committed a punishable offence under the NAB ordinance by favouring their blue-eyed persons while in awarding contracts.
She appealed that the matter be investigated and reference under section 18 of the NAB ordinance 1999 should be filed and responsibility for any or all wrongdoings must be fixed.
Orakzai said that the quality of the buses could be gauged from the fact that with two weeks after BRT’s inauguration, two accidents had happened while one bus had caught fire. Ends
