FIA told to submit BRT’s probe report within a week

PHC’s deadline for submitting an inquiry report on BRT ended Jan 20

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to complete the investigation into allegations of corruption in the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project swiftly and submit its report to the court within a week.

A PHC bench, headed by Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth, on December 2, 2019 had instructed the FIA to conduct an immediate inquiry into the flagship project and submit its findings within 45 days, and take action against the officers involved.

The PHC registrar on Thursday served a notice on the FIA directing it to submit the investigation report by end of next week.

The K-P’s top court had passed the judgment after hearing several petitions against the project.

In its order, the court had raised as many as 35 questions regarding the BRT project and had directed the FIA to answer the questions and submit a report.

The court in its verdict had asked the provincial government as to why the BRT Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Altaf Akbar Durrani of was removed from his office?

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 and the project was designed in haste which created many errors.

The verdict 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 court in its judgment had observed that the project’s per kilometer cost has risen to Rs2.427 billion, which it termed exorbitantly high.

The government had claimed the project would be completed within six months, however, the deadline of the project has been extended several times and its cost has gone up.

The cost of the transport project was also increased from Rs49.453 billion in 2017 to Rs66.437 billion in 2018, of which Rs53.320 was take in the form of a loan from the ADB.

The order further read that in the Project Concept-I (PC-I) high salaries for non-project staff like additional chief secretary and principal secretary to the chief minister were set while they had no direct roles.

The verdict questioned as to hefty salaries were given to consultants, which it termed a waste of government’s money.

BRT friendly for persons with disabilities

Special Assistant to K-P chief minister on Local Government Kamran Bangash on Saturday said the BRT project is friendly for persons with disabilities. He said all the facilities being given under the project were friendly to persons with disabilities. 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 26^th, 2020.