SC to hear dams fund case

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court is set to hear the Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand dams fund case on September 11.

A four-member bench, headed by CJP Qazi Faez Isa, will preside over the proceedings.

The bench includes Justice Irfan Saadat, Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan, and Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan.

The court has issued notices to several key officials, including the Attorney General of Pakistan, Advocate General of Punjab, Chairman of the NHA, Chairman of WAPDA, Chairman of the FBR, Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, and the Chairman of National Bank.

The development follows previous public scrutiny over the collection and utilisation of funds for the dams, with the court set to address these concerns in the upcoming hearing.

When the initiative was first launched in July last year, there was a sense that it fell outside the normal boundaries of jurisprudence, and there were questions regarding whether the then chief justice of the apex court should oversee a donation campaign to raise funds for a mega dam.

The attorney general had told the court that the media, at the goading of Pemra, had given Rs13bn worth of free airtime to the fund - for which the total contribution has come to around Rs9 billion.