End transporters' harassment, orders PHC

Says security agencies should stop extorting money from vehicles under pretext of drug checks

PESHAWAR:

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Saturday ordered security agencies to stop unnecessarily harassing and extorting money from transporters and truck drivers on the Pak-Afghan Highway under the pretext of security and drug checks.

A three-page written judgment has also been issued in which law enforcement agencies have been ordered to stop this practice forthwith.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Shakeel Ahmed and Justice Sabitullah Khan had heard the writ petition.

Transporters operating between Pakistan and Afghanistan had taken the stance in the writ petition filed through Advocate Aminur Rehman Yousafzai that various check posts had been established on the Pak-Afghan Highway and that transporters were being unnecessarily harassed by the staff manning them.

They had also said various security agencies had established the check posts, that millions of rupees were being collected in bribes from vehicles on a daily basis, and that the agencies included the police, excise, customs, Rangers, the FC and others.

Furthermore, according to the petitioners, transporters were being asked for bribes at various posts from Torkham to Karachi on the pretext of checking.

They had requested that the PHC should order that transporters be checked only at legal check posts on the National Highway and that they not be harassed unnecessarily.

Illegal collection of money from transporters and drivers would not only harm trade between the two countries but also harm the transport sector, they had argued.

The writ had also requested that the security check posts be investigated and, if found unnecessary, removed.

The court issued the written judgment upon the completion of arguments in which it declared that security agencies should not unnecessarily harass transporters on the Pak-Afghan Highway and that the concerned institutions be instructed to stop bribe collection under the guise of security and drug checks at the check posts established on the National Highway from Karachi to Torkham.

Meanwhile, Awami National Party (ANP) Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) Nisar Baz has filed a writ petition in the PHC against the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government's alleged discriminatory behaviour in the provision of funds to opposition parties.

The petition, filed through Advocate Sultan Muhammad Khan, has made the provincial government and other relevant institutions parties in the case.

It states that opposition parties had already filed a writ petition challenging the unfair distribution of funds, which was currently being heard by the court.

The petitioner, Nisar Baz, is an elected MPA from Bajaur affiliated with the opposition who is affected in the matter of funds' disbursement.

The petition further states that the petitioner would also fight a legal battle in the Assembly for the people of his constituency.