K-P speaker set to move court on CPEC route
Petition will be filed by senior lawyer Qazi Anwar on behalf of the speaker of the assembly
PHOTO: REUTERS
PESHAWAR:
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly will file a writ petition on Monday [today] in the Peshawar High Court (PHC) to clarify the status of the western route of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), but the opposition parties avoided becoming part of the petition.
The petition will be filed by senior lawyer Qazi Anwar on behalf of the speaker of the assembly.
Qazi told The Express Tribune that the speaker wanted to include parliamentary leaders of all political parties in the house. “I told him that speaker represents the whole assembly which is why the petition should be filed on his behalf.”
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Opposition parties in the assembly, including the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Awami National Party (ANP) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) avoided supporting the petition.
On October 27, parliamentary leaders of political groups in the house had announced after a meeting under the chairmanship of Speaker Asad Qaiser to file a petition in the PHC.
Even the K-P government’s own technical expert on CPEC and head of Pakhtunkhwa Ulasi Tehreek (PUT) Dr Said Alam Mahsud opposed the decision, saying that their options would be limited if they lost the case.
“The Supreme Court and not PHC is the proper forum for taking up the issue. This is a political issue and the federal government can be pressurized via protests,” he explained.
Mahsud believed that the government could press the federal government for prioritising the western route by refusing to cooperate in imposing Section-4 of the Land Acquisition Act for CPEC on the Havelian-Thakot segment.
Mahsud said that his team of lawyers will also file a petition once they examined the speaker’s case.
“We will file our own petition … they will destroy us if they lose,” he maintained.
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PML-N’s parliamentary leader Aurangzeb Nalotha opposed the petition, saying that work on the western route was under way and the province was benefiting from CPEC projects.
“If Hazara division is part of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa it is benefiting from CPEC. CPEC has only one dry-port, and it is in K-P,” he said.
“CM Pervez Khattak has issued a statement saying that he is 100 percent satisfied on CPEC, after he was briefed by federal minister for planning and development Ahsan Iqbal in Islamabad,” he said.
According to him, he was unable to understand why the speaker was taking the matter to court.
“PTI is just trying to divert public attention from its failure to start any major (development) project during its tenure,” he said.
ANP’s parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak said that PTI was alone in filing the petition and that he was not taken into confidence.
“I don’t know the logic behind the filing of the petition single-handedly,” he said.
ANP, he said, had always taken stand on issues in the larger interest of the province and such matters needed unity. PPP’s parliamentary leader Muhammad Ali Shah also said that he was not contacted after October 27 meeting.
Qaumi Watan Party leader and K-P minister for mines and mineral development Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli said that her party was not consulted on the petition.
K-P government spokesperson Mushtaq Ghani said that the speaker was filing the petition and parliamentary leaders of all political parties in the assembly supported him.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 7th, 2016.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly will file a writ petition on Monday [today] in the Peshawar High Court (PHC) to clarify the status of the western route of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), but the opposition parties avoided becoming part of the petition.
The petition will be filed by senior lawyer Qazi Anwar on behalf of the speaker of the assembly.
Qazi told The Express Tribune that the speaker wanted to include parliamentary leaders of all political parties in the house. “I told him that speaker represents the whole assembly which is why the petition should be filed on his behalf.”
Provinces dilly-dallying over deployment of CPEC force
Opposition parties in the assembly, including the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Awami National Party (ANP) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) avoided supporting the petition.
On October 27, parliamentary leaders of political groups in the house had announced after a meeting under the chairmanship of Speaker Asad Qaiser to file a petition in the PHC.
Even the K-P government’s own technical expert on CPEC and head of Pakhtunkhwa Ulasi Tehreek (PUT) Dr Said Alam Mahsud opposed the decision, saying that their options would be limited if they lost the case.
“The Supreme Court and not PHC is the proper forum for taking up the issue. This is a political issue and the federal government can be pressurized via protests,” he explained.
Mahsud believed that the government could press the federal government for prioritising the western route by refusing to cooperate in imposing Section-4 of the Land Acquisition Act for CPEC on the Havelian-Thakot segment.
Mahsud said that his team of lawyers will also file a petition once they examined the speaker’s case.
“We will file our own petition … they will destroy us if they lose,” he maintained.
K-P police decline to provide security for Chinese engineers working on CPEC
PML-N’s parliamentary leader Aurangzeb Nalotha opposed the petition, saying that work on the western route was under way and the province was benefiting from CPEC projects.
“If Hazara division is part of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa it is benefiting from CPEC. CPEC has only one dry-port, and it is in K-P,” he said.
“CM Pervez Khattak has issued a statement saying that he is 100 percent satisfied on CPEC, after he was briefed by federal minister for planning and development Ahsan Iqbal in Islamabad,” he said.
According to him, he was unable to understand why the speaker was taking the matter to court.
“PTI is just trying to divert public attention from its failure to start any major (development) project during its tenure,” he said.
ANP’s parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak said that PTI was alone in filing the petition and that he was not taken into confidence.
“I don’t know the logic behind the filing of the petition single-handedly,” he said.
ANP, he said, had always taken stand on issues in the larger interest of the province and such matters needed unity. PPP’s parliamentary leader Muhammad Ali Shah also said that he was not contacted after October 27 meeting.
Qaumi Watan Party leader and K-P minister for mines and mineral development Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli said that her party was not consulted on the petition.
K-P government spokesperson Mushtaq Ghani said that the speaker was filing the petition and parliamentary leaders of all political parties in the assembly supported him.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 7th, 2016.