Development schemes : PHC dismisses petitions against governor’s orders

PESHAWAR:

A divisional bench of the Peshawar High Court dismissed writ petitions filed against an order issued by the governor to scrap around 400 development projects on Thursday. The projects were initiated by his predecessors in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The bench comprising Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Mussarat Hilali reserved the order on October 28. It pronounced a short order by dismissing around 25 petitions. The petitioners included contractors who were assigned different development schemes in 2013-14 in the Annual Development Programme for the tribal belt. However, they were stopped from continuing the projects after the governor’s issued the order. The petitioners included some tribespeople who filed petitions requesting the schemes be restarted. Ghulam Mohiuddin Mali, one of the petitioners, said under the law, the superior courts were barred from exercising any jurisdiction in the region.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2015.