PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has declared illegal the diversion of Torghar district’s development funds to other areas by the chief minister.

A bench consisting of Justice Lal Jan Khattak and Justice Ahmad Ali accepted a petition filed by MPA from PK-35 (Torghar) Laiq Mohammad Khan against the chief minister’s Dec 14, 2018, letter through which Torghar’s funds were re-appropriated to schemes in other areas.

The respondents in the petition were the provincial government through the chief secretary; secretary of the planning and development department; secretary of the local government department, and secretary to the chief minister.

The bench pronounced a short order of accepting the petition after the completion of arguments by lawyers for government and petitioner. The detailed judgment will be released afterward.

Babar Khan Yousafzai, lawyer for the petitioner, said Torghar was a backward district and had always remained neglected.

MPA had taken CM to court over re-appropriation of ADP funding

He said the ADP Scheme No 696/170340(2018-19) as a special development package was announced for Torghar district to the delight of the residents.

The lawyer said the 2018-19 budget had Rs300 million for the Torghar development package but only Rs40 million of the amount was released.

He said a letter issued by the chief minister on Dec 14, 2018, re-appropriated that funding to schemes in other areas as given by the CM Secretariat.

The lawyer said the decision about the funds’ diversion was taken by the chief minister as his client was elected from the area on the ticket of the opposition Awami National Party.

He said Torghar was a small district and since it was separated from Mansehra district in 2011 under Article 246 of the Constitution, few development schemes had been carried out there.

The lawyer also said Torghar was badly hit by the 2005 earthquake.

He said the chief minister’s letter was illegal and without lawful authority as once funds were allocated under the ADP for a particular project and passed by the assembly, they couldn’t be transferred to other areas.

The lawyer claimed that the act of the respondents was politically motivated, while their conduct would damage the future of children in the district.

Another petition of Laiq Mohammad Khan about the non-inclusion of Torghar in the category of least developed districts has already been pending with the high court.

The petitioner claimed that the PTI government hadn’t included his district in the Least Developed Districts Uplift Programme in the 2019-20 budget.

He said the government had allocated special funds for that programme in the 2019-20 budget but the programme didn’t cover Torghar though it was the most backward and underdeveloped district in the province.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2019