PESHAWAR: The United Business Group (UBG), a group of business community, has demanded of the superior judiciary to take notice of the alleged anomalies in the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project to ensure its early completion and action against those facing corruption charges.

In a statement here on Thursday, UBG leader and former senator Ilyas Ahmad Bilour alleged that the government had ruined the real face of the historical Peshawar since launch of BRT. He said that the anti-corruption institutions had also adopted silence to investigate the allegations regarding irregularities in the mega bus transit project.

Mr Bilour, who is also a senior leader of Awami National Party, said that if his party came into power it would properly investigate the reports about corruption and award punishment to those found involved in misappropriation of the national wealth.

He said that there was no need of BRT in Peshawar as the project had not only ruined beauty of the provincial metropolis, but also diminished the historical importance of the GT Road Peshawar, which could not be revived now.

The UBG leader said that the ‘anti-graft’ watchdog didn’t take notice of serious blunders in the project, adding that the silence would affect its image. He demanded of NAB to take immediate action against the people facing corruption charges in BRT, saying that the project had badly affected the business and trade activities in Peshawar.

The Peshawar, he said, was known as the city of flowers, but it had been changed into a city of bridges. He said that the government was bound to compensate the BRT-affected traders without any delay.

The former lawmaker said that the government had announced different deadlines for the project’s completion, but failed to fulfil its commitments.

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2019