Court orders: PHC seeks MoU to change German-funded building into hospital

Court also asks for govt officials to pay for use of Supurdari vehicles.

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has sought a copy of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the governments of Pakistan and Germany to construct a hospital in place of an educational institute that was financed by the German government.

PHC sought a copy of the agreement after some teachers from the institute approached the court saying that the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government has proposed to construct a Children’s and Maternity Hospital where the current Regional Institution for Teachers’ Education (Rite) building is in Charsadda. The construction of the Rite building was a project funded by the German government.

Additional Advocate General Naveed Akhtar informed a division bench comprising Chief Justice (CJ) PHC Dost Muhammad Khan and Justice Irshad Qaisar that only 182 teachers had been studying at Rite while the entire space can accommodate up to 3,000. He said that the building was the ‘perfect place’ to establish the hospital and that the teachers would be given a separate portion of the building to continue the work of Rite. However, Rite’s Senior Clerk, Asmatullah, told the bench that the building had been funded by the German government under the German NGO GTZ, solely for the purpose of Rite.

Akhtar noted that the construction of the hospital had been approved during a provincial cabinet meeting. However CJ Khan said if the building was converted into a hospital it would convey the wrong message to donors and they would hesitate funding such projects in future. The bench later directed the planning and development department to send an expert team to determine how much of the area could be allotted for the hospital and that a report should be submitted before the next court hearing.

The building was constructed in 2001 but a notification regarding shifting the college to Peshawar was issued on April 10. After this, however, the college’s students managed to get a stay-order to retain the building on April 20.

Supurdari vehicles recovered with parts missing

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has ordered Excise and Taxation (E&T) department to submit a list of all missing parts of Supurdari vehicles.

Supurdari automobiles are mostly case property, confiscated cars which have been seized for non-payment of customs duty, or they are stolen or smuggled cars. These vehicles are in use by government officials and public representatives. The vehicles were recovered when PHC took suo motu notice of a number of Supurdari vehicles being illegally used by government officials, including police and some members of the provincial assembly.

On Tuesday, E&T department Legal Advisor Gohar Rehman Khattak accompanied by E&T Officer Jahandad informed the bench that a total of 54 out of 59 vehicles had been recovered from officials.

CJ Khan ordered the E&T officer to find out the rent of each Supurdari vehicle and charge 25% of that to officials who have been using them. The hearing was adjourned till November 20.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 17^th, 2012.