ISLAMABAD: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government challenged in the Supreme Court on Tuesday a directive for the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to probe the controversial Peshawar Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) project.

A joint appeal, moved by the provincial government through the KP chief secretary and secretaries of the local government and rural development and transport departments, requested the apex court to overturn the Nov 14 judgement in which the Peshawar High Court had formulated 35 questions and referred them to the FIA for a thorough inquiry.

The advocate general of KP will represent the provincial government when the case will be taken up by Supreme Court.

The petition argued that a bare perusal of the PHC judgement revealed that a letter or some reports had been reproduced in the verdict and while copying the text even the flag mentioned in the letter was not omitted which had been incorporated in the judgement, although it did not have any annexure of its own.

In its Nov 14 judgement, PHC directed FIA to investigate the controversial Peshawar bus project

The appeal contended that planning, designing and initiation of the BRT project were meticulously examined by the PHC in a previous proceeding in 2017 in which it was held that the project was up to the mark and, therefore, the recent order indicated malice in law. The high court judgement was also hit by the principle of res judicata and suffered from lack of jurisdiction, it argued.

The petition contended that the high court had travelled beyond its jurisdiction in deciding factual and technical controversy in writ jurisdiction, which could not be resolved without recording of evidence. It wondered whether the high court was competent to discuss technical aspects of the BRT project in the absence of any technical expertise without acquiring any expert in the relevant field.

While deciding the case, the PHC had held that the concept of town planning was Greek to the decision-makers as Peshawar was mainly fed by a single traffic artery of Khyber Road. Due to this factor alone, Khyber Road and branch roads are mainly congested, but no efforts were made to relocate the wholesale market outside the main city; besides the idea of ring road for the city that emerged in the 1980s also succumbed to the prescribed procedure, especially for a mega project.

The high court had deplored that the dysfunctional PC-1 of the project was approved from the PDWP and CDWP in April/May 2017 at a cost of Rs49.5 billion without completion of the detail design. The cost was later revised to Rs66.4bn on May 23, 2018.

The total cost of the 27-37km road project was estimated at Rs66.4bn, translating into approximately Rs2.4bn per kilometre, which was too exorbitant, the PHC had held, adding that the project was grossly mishandled and mismanaged from its inception by the provincial government officials during which three project directors were replaced.

The high court was also concerned about the lavish salaries and per diem for non-project staff like the additional chief secretary and principal secretary to the chief minister, who had no direct role in the management of the project. A province with a weak economy could not afford this, it had regretted. The high court also deplored deceptive and false financial model developed to allegedly hoodwink the decision-makers. To coordinate the BRT process, consultants on heavy salaries were recruited in the transport department, but in the long run they proved useless and that was a sheer waste of government money, the court had regretted.

The high court observed that the Punjab Metro bus project had a fleet of 65 buses of which five were on standby, wherein the Peshawar BRT project initially had 419 buses which were later reduced to 219, of which 65 were to be used for the main BRT route while 155 for feeder roads. These feeder busses were to be used by private transporters, the judgement highlighted, wondering why the public should pay for the buses of private transporters.

The high court had regretted that the entire project was initiated without any vision and plan by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government, adding that mammoth loan had been obtained for the project when such loan had been vital for the economic prosperity and self-sufficiency of the province.

The high court was also bitter over pushing of the project for approval without any proper feasibility, adding that the project was initially conceived and reflected in the ADP-2011-12 by the coalition government of Awami National Party and Pakistan Peoples Party. But the PTI government initially ignored it and then started spadework in January 2017. Thus this was a face-saving project of the PTI government, which ultimately had adverse effects on the provincial coffers and tremendous inconvenience for the inhabitants of Peshawar, the high court had regretted.

The visionless PTI government concentrated loan money in one city and this project might not bring about radical change in the lives of people, the PHC had observed, adding that the people living in remote areas of the province would remain deprived as ever.

The provincial government argued in its appeal that the KP economy predominantly revolved around the Peshawar city, partly due to its status as a provincial capital and partly due to its inherent status of being an economic hub as it was a historical commercial centre on the route from Afghanistan and beyond.

“Thus Peshawar acts as a nucleus for commerce, trade and business activities not only for the entire province but also for the region,” the appeal contended, adding that decision on development priorities rested with the provincial executive, rather than the judiciary. “BRT is part of the ADP (annual development plan) of the province and hence enjoys the approval of the provincial legislation,” the appeal argued.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2019