The bench, after hearing arguments from both sides, reserved its judgment, but the date of the verdict’s announcement was not divulged. PHOTO: FILE
The verdict was reserved by a division bench of Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Musarrat Hilali while hearing the writ petition of the teachers’ association that wants Chief Minister (CM) Pervez Khattak to reverse his decision regarding giving away the garden in Azakhel, Nowshera.
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Advocate General Abdul Latif Yousafzai told the bench the district government made a lease agreement with the University of Peshawar (UoP) in 2005 over the botanical gardens, spread over 689 kanals. At present around 77 kanals are used for academic purposes.
The advocate general further contended that apart from the presently utilised land, the rest lies unused where the provincial government is planning to set up an Air University and Technical University which will not affect current academic activities of the botanical garden.
“The lease agreement was signed with UoP for education purposes and the provincial government’s plan is to flourish the practice by establishing more educational institutes. More jobs will be created and students will be able to get an education at new varsities,” Yousafzai said.
He further explained the government has only approved the summary and has not taken a final decision owing to a stay order issued on March 14. The petition is not maintainable as the petitioners are not aggrieved persons and the issue was not raised in the syndicate meeting of the said university, he argued.
Mian Mohibullah Kakakhel, counsel for the petitioner, told the bench the garden belongs to UoP and the teachers’ association is a registered body while the two universities which the government is planning to establish are private.
He further said that in a letter written earlier, the local government secretary and UoP informed the provincial government that the land must not be given for the purpose of establishing two private universities.
The bench, after hearing arguments from both sides, reserved its judgment, but the date of the verdict’s announcement was not divulged.
On March 8, PUTA filed a writ petition stating that on February 24, the CM presided over an official meeting and decided that the botanical garden and centre of biodiversity belonging to UoP shall remain on 100 kanals and decreed the rest be given to Air University and Technical University.
PUTA’s petition states that the decision is without jurisdiction and lawful authority as the land belongs to UoP where the Higher Education Commission invested a huge sum for establishing a botanical garden, biodiversity centre and public park for research and education purposes.
On March 15, PHC issued a stay order against the decision and stopped the provincial government from carrying out its intended plans.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 10th, 2014.
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Why are these proposed private institutions eying the land which belong to the University of Peshawar for research purposes. No one could even imagine to take away the lands belong to local university over here to be given to some private outfits. Whats wrong with the Chief Minister, sure, it is good to have specialized institutions in K-P but the private outfit could find some other location nearby for their universities. And why do they call them universities, it takes a lot of effort and money to establish universities and above all these so called universities got to meet certain criteria of concerned education departments in K-P as well in Islamabad.