Under-construction: Court wants to know if it’s at risk because of flyover

Bench told Mufti Mehmood Flyover might pose security threat.

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) told the secretary of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Home and Tribal Affairs department to consult security experts and see if proper measures were being taken during the construction of Mufti Mehmood Flyover to secure the court building, provincial assembly and other institutions.

If not, the court asked the secretary to prepare recommendations for what should be done.

A two-member division bench of Chief Justice Mian Fasihul Mulk and Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan heard the petition filed by Peshawar High Court Bar Association. Ishtiaq Ibrahim, the association’s president, told the bench that the government was constructing a flyover near the PHC and they feared that it would create security issues.

Ibrahim said that there were no proper security arrangements and the width of the bridge could serve as a vantage point for possible attacks on any of the institutions, including the court. Officials from Peshawar Development Authority, however, said they would fix the problem with a concrete wall on the side of the flyover facing the court and other institutions.

Ibrahim added a similar flyover was constructed in Gulbahar but due to lack of security measures, unidentified men used it to lob hand grenades at a police station.

Additional Advocate General Qaiser Ali Shah told the court that the government had taken steps to secure institutions on both sides of the Mufti Mehmood Flyover as it is high on their priority list.

After hearing both sides of the argument, the court directed the secretary to go to security experts and check if steps had been taken to ensure the security of the court and other institutions in the vicinity. He was also told to make recommendations if the institutions were open to threats after the flyover was operational.

Previously, on November 5, 2013, the court’s former chief justice Dost Muhammad Khan ordered the chief minister to constitute a commission to probe the possible security risk that could be created due to the construction of Mufti Mehmood Flyover.

The construction work of the flyover was inaugurated by former chief minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti on June 28, 2011 and the stipulated time of its completion was two years, with a cost of Rs1.77 billion.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1^st, 2014.