PESHAWAR, Aug 26: Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani has diverted money raised from the sale of jail land in his native district Bannu and ordered that it be spent on construction of a public park there.

It has been learnt that the chief minister has ordered that the money earned from the sale of part of the commercial land of district prison in Bannu which was to be spent on the construction of a new jail, be diverted and spent on the construction of a public park.

The decision has given a major setback to building a new prison in the district, an official familiar with the matter said.

The official said that the prison authorities had earlier planned to dispose of the land measuring 74 kanals presently housing the district jail in Bannu and utilize the sale proceed for the construction of a new prison in the same district.

The prison authorities, the official said, had demarcated a piece of land measuring 12 kanals that was of commercial value was to be sold off and the money so raised would be spent on the construction of a new prison.

Six kanals of the total 12 kanals of land was subsequently sold out which brought Rs12.4 million to the prison department. The remaining six kanals of land remains to be sold off.

It however, turned out that the chief minister keen on developing Bannu district ordered that the entire amount earned from the sale of prison land be diverted and spent on the construction of a public park.

Phase-II of the Bannu prison was estimated to cost Rs61.61 million, while the sale of only commercial part of the prison land would have fetched Rs42m, the official said.

Consequently, the second phase of new Bannu jail that was to be completed in 2005 has received a huge setback as the prison authorities have no money in their kitty to push the project.

The irony is that Phase-III of the new jail that would cost Rs54m has been allocated only Rs2m. “This is going to delay the completion of the jail for several years”, the official said.

It is said that the cost of second phase of the Bannu jail has been revised upward with another Rs10m to the cost due to escalation in the prices of construction material.

This is despite the fact that the federal government in the last budget brought down the prices of cement and other construction material to encourage the construction sector.

The official said that the Inspector General of Prison, Col Abdul Rauf opposed the decision and reported the matter verbatim in the shape of a summary to the home department. The chief minister however, overruled the IG Prison and ordered the diversion of money from jail to the construction of a public park.

The IG Prison declined to comment when approached by Dawn .

An official in the finance department confirmed that the thinning out of resources as a result of an over-expanded ADP has also hit the ongoing construction of Peshawar Central Prison.

The official acknowledged that as against the required allocation of Rs199m for the Phase-II of the new central prison, the provincial government has set aside Rs9m only.

The meagre allocation would delay the project again for another five to eight years which was expected to be completed by 2004-2005.

The jail authorities had hoped to shift the around 2,000 prison inmates to the new prison near Peshawar after the completion of the second phase. The new facility at Jallozai is expected to hold up to 4,000 prison.

The old prison situated in the heart of Peshawar was built in 1856 with a capacity of 1,400 prisoners only.

Governor NWFP, Lt Gen Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah, who was the chief executive of the province, before the MMA government, had ordered that work on the new jail should be expedited and had allocated huge sums for the purpose.

Also, the provincial government has ordered construction of district jails in Charsadda, Mardan, Swabi, Malakand, Shangla and a sub-jail in Lower Dir. The orders have come in the shape of directives from the chief minister. The cost of each jail has been estimated at Rs150m. But as against this, they have been allocated Rs2m each. In the case of sub-jail in lower Dir, the allocation is just Rs1m.