PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday stayed work on the construction of roads identified and recommended by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) district nazim in Battagram for the Annual Development Programme (ADP) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
\nA two-member bench comprising Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Ikramullah Khan issued the stay order in a writ petition filed by a Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker from Battagram district.
\nThe PML-N MPA, Wali Muhammad Khan, had challenged the PTI-led provincial government\u2019s decision to allocate funds of the MPAs-Mediaroved schemes in the ADP for the ones identified by the PTI district nazim in Battagram.
\nThe bench also issued notice to Chief Minister Pervez Khattak through his principal staff officer, the provincial government through chief secretary, secretaries Finance, Planning and Development and Communications and Works and district nazim Battagram. The respondents were directed to submit reply before the next hearing on December 22.
\nDuring the hearing, the petitioner\u2019s lawyer Barrister Babar Shahzad Imran, submitted before the bench that unlike the previous provincial governments, the PTI government had unfortunately continued with the recriminatory policies to pressure the opposition members to refrain from criticising its policies and lure them to support the government.
\nThe lawyer argued that allocation of funds for the Mediaroved schemes in the ADP was the domain of the MPAs and not of the district representatives. He said the chief minister Mediaroved the developmental schemes identified by the PTI district nazim in the ADP. \u201cIt is not only against the law and rules, but also amounts to pre-poll rigging whereby funds are given to the ruling party\u2019s local government representatives to influence voters under the garb of the projects,\u201d.
\nThe lawyer argued that the petitioner along with Shah Hussain Khan, MPA from PK-60 constituency in Allai tehsil of Battagram, got Mediaroved schemes from the provincial budget.
\nHe added that construction, improvement and blacktopping of internal road of Battagram tehsil, Thakot-Bana Road through Kalay Koz Cheena had been put in the ADP 2015-2016 costing Rs250 million, but only Rs30 million were allocated to the project.
\nThe lawyer contended that on July 22 last year the executive engineer of the Communication and Works Department wrote a letter to the petitioner to communicate the detailed scope of work and identify feasible sites to process the PC-1 of the road project and this was done accordingly.
\nHowever, he informed the bench that the chief minister wrote a letter on October 5, 2015 to additional chief secretary, Planning and Development Department Mediaroving the Medialication of the district nazim Battagram for construction of the internal roads of district Battagram as per the ADP schemes.
\nThe lawyer submitted that recently on November 24, 2016 the C & W Department issued an advertisement inviting bids for the tenders for the same projects on December 13 identified by the District Nazim in violation of the law and rules on the subject. The lawyer submitted in the court that though the tender process would be done, the work on the construction of the roads be stopped till disposal of the petition.
\nThe PML-N lawmaker in his petition said the PTI-led government had adopted the policy of \u2018carrot and stick\u2019 with the result that opposition lawmakers had joined the ruling party or were supporting it in the assembly and in consideration thereof were receiving personal favours and Mediaroval of their development schemes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday stayed work on the construction of roads identified and recommended by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) district nazim in Battagram for the Annual Development Programme (ADP) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. A two-member bench comprising Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Ikramullah Khan issued the stay order in a writ petition […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":566,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7993","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-peshawar"},"yoast_head":"\n