PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Thursday reserved its judgment on two petitions challenging the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit project, asking the provincial advocate general to produce the documents showing the Asian Development Bank’s recommendation for the award of the multibillion rupees initiative’s contract to a joint venture.

Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Syed Afsar Shah heard arguments in the petitions for three consecutive days.

One of the petitions was filed jointly by former provincial minister Amanullah Haqqani and citizen Wali Khan, while the other one was filed by environmentalist Abid Zareef.

Essa Khan was the lawyer for the first petitioner, while Abid Zareef pleaded his case by himself.

Seeks documents showing ADB’s recommendation for contract’s award

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa advocate general Abdul Lateef Yousafzai represented the provincial government and advocate Shumail Butt the SGEC-Maqbool-Calsons JV, the joint venture given away the contract.

Former attorney general Mohammad Khursheed Khan, who was also made party to the petitions by the court on his application, also advanced arguments on different aspects of the project.

Over directions given by the bench a day ago, the AG produced several relevant documents, including the notification regarding the invoking of Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act for acquiring the required land for the project; No Objection Certificate (NOC) issued by the cantonment executive officer for passage of the corridor from Peshawar Cantonment; contract of the project to the joint venture by the provincial government, and NOC issued by district government for the project.

Advocate Essa Khan said the company Calson was blacklisted in Punjab and that it had also paid Rs840 million to the National Accountability Bureau as plea bargain in a case.

AG Lateef Yousafzai and Shumail Butt however contended that the Lahore High Court had decided a petition in favour of the Calson and had set aside its blacklisting order of the Punjab government.

The AG said the joint venture was awarded contract in accordance with the recommendations of ADB, which had been providing loan for the project, and that international bidding had taken place in a transparent manner.

He said work on the project would be completed within the specified period of six months.

Peshawar superintendent of police (traffic) Mohammad Riaz submitted a traffic plan to be followed during the work on BRT project and said the traffic police had begun public awareness programme on alternate routes to prevent traffic jams.

He said an SMS service had been launched to educate motorists about the traffic situation.

Mohammad Khursheed Khan suggested to the bench that just like other major cities of the world, including New Delhi and Beijing, the court could order the plying of vehicles having registration numbers in even and odd digits on alternate days instead of all vehicles travelling on the same day.

He said the government should try to mitigate the BRT-related problems related to environment and traffic congestion through proper planning.

He said a military checkpost, which was on a major traffic alternate route, had been a cause of traffic congestion and therefore, the issue should be taken up with the relevant military authorities for resolution.

Essa Khan said the Environmental protection Agency had given approval to the project without fulfilling legal requirements.

He disputed the permission given by the district nazim for the project, stating that under the law sanction should be given by the district council.

Published in Dawn, November 24th, 2017