SC seeks response on Balakot City

The Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) has sought a written response from the Ministry of Planning and Finance of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) regarding the construction of New Balakot City.

A two-member bench headed by Justice Ijazul Ahsan heard the suo motu notice case regarding the rehabilitation of the 2005 earthquake victims.

During the hearing, Chief Secretary Imdad Ullah Bosal appeared in the court and stated that he was appointed on February 2, but he still took briefings from all institutions on the court order.

“Since 2008, the New Balakot City project has not been completed which is unfortunate but there are reasons which I want to place before the court, the first of which is that the New Balakot City project has not yet been fully handed over to the provincial government,” he said.

“Some of its issues are still between ERRA (Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority) and the contractors, which are yet to be settled, and 310 local people have built houses on 2,000 kanals,” he added.

The chief secretary further told the court that 15,596 kanals were laid down for the first time, but 4,107 kanals are of forest land and 733 kanals of agricultural land, therefore, at present only 8,444 kanals are available on which the New Balakot City can be built.

He said that the biggest difficulty of the project is the lack of funds. The financial condition of K-P is not good at all, he added, highlighting that the province is already in a deficit but a viable plan, after approval of the provincial cabinet, can be worked on with the cooperation of the federation.

He further said that the federation will be requested to fund 50 percent of the project.

Justice Ahsan said that this was a “very sad situation”.

“Billions of rupees came from foreign countries, where did they go?” he asked.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 16^th, 2023.