Green signal: PHC overturns governor’s order to halt FATA projects

2,800 projects stood to suffer in the agencies and six FR regions.

PESHAWAR:

The Peshawar High Court has overturned the decision of the new Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa governor to freeze developmental schemes started in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) by his predecessor.

On April 18, soon after he took office, the new governor, Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan, had ordered for the work to be stopped. His orders said: “All schemes for Fata’s ADP 2013-14 which have not been approved or for which work has not yet been started shall stand frozen. The ongoing schemes which have reached 70% completion shall be fully funded [and] shall be completed by June 30, irrespective of the annual phasing.”

Contractor Mastu Jan went to court to challenge this order and is being represented by his counsel Advocate Aminur Rehman. On Tuesday, a division bench of Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan heard the preliminary arguments.

Counsel Aminur Rehman told the judges that former governor Shaukatullah had started a number of projects for the residents of the seven agencies and six Frontier Regions (FR). When Mehtab Ahmad Khan was appointed governor, he froze the development projects and divided them into five different categories.

Rehman explained that his order specified that projects which had been 70% completed would be finished while the remaining will be stopped. But doing this would lead to a sense of deprivation among the residents of the tribal areas and they will remain disadvantaged. To a query from the court, Rehman said that 2,800 projects were underway in this area. After hearing the preliminary arguments, the court suspended the governor’s order to stop the work and sought explanations from the relevant officials.

On July 3, a two-member bench of CJ Mazhar Alam and Justice Nisar Hussain Khan issued the same order on the writ petitions filed by contractors Muhammad Aslam and Anwer Shah.

The petition says the government has invited tenders for the construction of a one-kilometre road from Daryoba to Alam Khan Kuroonan in FR Bannu and qualified for it after they deposited Rs250,000 on December 12, 2013.

The governor then divided the schemes into five categories, including projects which had used up 70% or more of their funds, and said they should be focused on finishing them by June 30. Also schemes which were implemented 50% to 70% would be considered top priority in the next year’s ADP for 2014-15. “Schemes with financial utilization between 25% and 50% should be capped after reviewing their completion potential level of delivery and alternate utilization, if the continuation of such projects is deemed necessary, approval of the governor shall be obtained,” the petition reads.

Similarly, projects having financial utilization of up to 25% will stand frozen while schemes still unapproved will be considered dropped.

The petition said a lot of money has been invested by the government into the projects from their planning, preparation of ADPs, advertisement, execution of works but the entire process has been nullified in one go without taking cognizance of the law and constitution.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 9^th, 2014.