Saving space: PHC stays CM’s decision to handover botanical garden

Khattak had ordered to give 577 kanals of the garden to two universities.

PESHAWAR:

The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Friday issued a stay order against the chief minister’s (CM) decision to handover a major portion of the University of Peshawar’s (UoP) botanical garden to set up two other universities in Azakhel, Nowshera.

On March 8, Peshawar University Teachers Association (PUTA) filed a writ petition stating that the CM ordered in February that 577 kanals of the garden should be given to the Islamabad-based Air University and a technical university.

On Friday, the division bench of Justice Abdul Latif Khan and Justice Muhammad Daud was informed by the petitioners’ counsel, Mohibullah Kakakhel, that the provincial government has decided to give a major portion of the botanical garden to construct two other universities. “PhD students conduct research on various topics there,” he said, urging the court to stop the transfer of land to other universities.

The court then issued a stay order against handing over of the botanical garden and sought written comments from the chief secretary and other respondents on the issue.

The petition which PUTA had filed stated that the CM’s decision was unlawful as the land belongs to the university. “The CM on one hand is campaigning for a green K-P  while on the other he wants to demolish a recreation park and a garden used for research” the petition states.

The Higher Education Commission has spent Rs107 million for the establishment of the botanical garden, a centre of biodiversity and a public park, it added.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 15^th, 2014.