‘Poor’ BRT planning: Petition in PHC calls for holding govt to account

Court issues notices to all the respondents

PESHAWAR: A lawyer on Wednesday asked the Peshawar High Court (PHC) to hold the government and political parties responsible for their flawed planning which saw them first build projects and then bulldoze them to make way for a mass transit project in Peshawar.

A writ petition filed by Ghulam Shoaib Jally was heard by a two-judge bench of the PHC, comprising Justice Ikramullah Khan and Justice Muhammad Ayub.

Jally contended that the government had bulldozed constructions clear a path for the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), causing the exchequer a massive loss.

“The plans for constructing the BRT were in the pipeline for the past 20 years, then why were such projects undertaken when the government knew they will have to be removed,” the lawyer asked.

He added that the respective government — ostensibly the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) — has to explain how much money was spent on the projects which were bulldozed.

The lawyer pointed out that the government had flattened Aman Chowk — a monument built in Hashtanagri along the Grand Trunk (GT) Road, several underpasses and green belts on which the government had spent billions of rupees.

All of these projects, he argued, were the casualties of the BRT project, adding that the respective government has to explain how much revenue was extended to the projects that were bulldozed.

He urged the court to hold government officials and the political parties responsible for such flawed planning and punish them for the loss they have caused to the national exchequer.

The petitioner asked the court to direct the government to plan new projects in such a manner that may not clash with past or future projects and to look at the future prospects of the projects

The court, after hearing the preliminary arguments of the petitioner, issued notices to all the respondents including the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) chief Secretary, Peshawar Development Authority director, Cantonment Board’s chief executive of and Peshawar’s deputy commissioner to submit their response to the case until the next hearing of the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 1^st, 2018.