PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday declared illegal the lease of cattle market and slaughterhouse given to a private firm by the administration of Peshawar Town-I in 2003 and ordered the re-advertising of the contract.

A bench comprising Justice Nisar Hussain and Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth accepted the petition of a Peshawar resident, Malik Mohammad Masood, against the leasing out of the slaughterhouse and cattle market to Waheedullah Khan for 33 years at much cheaper rates and thus, causing loss to the exchequer.

It ordered the Town-I administration to publish an advertisement within a month for awarding the contract by an open auction.

Ameenur Rehman, lawyer for the petitioner, said in 2002, the administration of Town Council I had published an advertisement for awarding contract to set up the slaughterhouse and cattle market.

Gives Peshawar Town-I one month for awarding contract by open auction

He said in the said advertisement, the condition was given that only that person could apply who was owner of required land in the area as who agreed to get contract on partnership basis with the government.

The lawyer said nobody participated in that process and subsequently in 2003 the administration awarded the contract of the said two places to Waheedullah Khan who didn’t own land in the area and had in fact acquired land on rent from another person.

He said the contractor was given the contract on the partnership basis and under the agreement 15 percent of the profit had to go to the government whereas rest of 85 percent had to be retained by the contractor.

Ameenur Rehman argued that the contractor had presently been paying Rs2.6 million a month to the town administration, whereas the petitioner was willing to acquire the contract by paying Rs70 million a year.

Lawyer for the contractor, Waheedullah Khan, said after the town administration had published the said advertisement in 2002, nobody had participated in the auction and finally the administration had awarded the contract to the current contractor.

He said compared to other town councils, the contractor had been paying more amount of money to the administration.

He pointed out that the petition was not maintainable as the lease agreement took place in 2003 and the petitioner challenged it after a decade. He questioned why the petitioner had not applied for the contract when the advertisement was published in 2002.

Additional advocate general Rabnawaz Khan said the advertisement given in 2002 did not mention that the slaughterhouse and cattle market would be given on 33 years lease.

He added that such places were not given on lease for a longer period and that normally, the contract was for a year.

The bench observed that apparently, the government had been facing loss as the contract could be awarded at much higher rates.

It added that it would be appropriate for the administration to re-advertise the contract before awarding it to a party at the existing market rates.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2016