FIA launches probe into Peshawar BRT project

Special team which would include technical experts headed by an additional director who would lead the investigation

PESHAWAR: After orders from the Peshawar High Court (PHC), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Thursday started an investigation into Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project.

A special team including technical experts headed by an additional director would lead the investigation into Peshawar’s mass transit project.

On December 5, PHC had sought a fresh probe into alleged irregularities in the project. A bench, headed by PHC Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth, had instructed FIA to submit its findings within 45 days, and take action against the officers involved.



Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Law Department told The Express Tribune on Friday (December 6) that the provincial advocate general had prepared a writ petition challenging PHC’s verdict.

The main argument on which the province is basing its appeal is that the chief anti-corruption watchdog, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is already investigating the project and that a stay order on that probe is already in effect from the top court itself. Hence, the province aims to argue that there is no need to direct another agency to probe the project.

K-P Advocate General Shumail Ahmed Butt told The Express Tribune that he has already drafted the writ petition but will be presented to the government for approval. Once approved, he said that the provincial law ministry will file the petition before the top court.



Work on the 27-kilometre project began in 2017 under the provincial government led by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). It was expected to have been completed in eight months at a cost of Rs49 billion. However, the project faced delays. Over two years after work on the project began, it remains incomplete. Changes to the design of the project mean that its cost has swelled to nearly Rs66 billion.

In its order, the court termed the PTI government ‘visionless’ for concentrating money obtained as a loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for just one project in a single city.

It further noted that no detailed feasibility study was undertaken to determine its economic, financial and technical viability before starting work on the mammoth project “which is why the design [of the project] has been repeatedly changed,” stated the judgment.

The project’s per kilometre cost currently stands at Rs2.427 billion, which is “exorbitantly high.”