PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is considering to revive a planetarium in the posh Hayatabad, which the national flag carrier has failed to operationalise since the land was allotted to it in 1995 free of charge.

The planetarium, which is now at the heart of litigation between the government and Pakistan International Airlines, was opened in 2011.

Currently, the matter is pending with the court after PIA challenged the provincial government’s decision to cancel the allotment of land for the purpose over failure to either operationalise the planetarium or pay Rs60 million penalty.

The documents available with Dawn show that the sports, tourism and archeology department has moved a note to the chief secretary saying the current legal imbroglio is depriving the residents of Hayatabad, especially youngsters and students, of a healthy and educational activity in the shape of planetarium presenting educational and entertaining shows on astronomy and night sky.

Tourism dept seeks resolution of legal issues regarding cancellation of land allotment

“It is proposed that the Peshawar Development Authority take a final stand on the legal issues in consultation with the PIA and either take up a joint venture or public private partnership on running the planetarium and amphitheatre/indoor cinema on the premises or hand over possession of the plot to the KP Culture and Tourism Authority for a longish period so that similar action is taken on this end,” an official document read.

According to the documents, the land with the plot is such that it, after catering to 70-80 cars, could even have indoor cinema or preferably amphitheatre.

In 1984, the provincial government had provided a 30 kanals plot to the PIA free of charge but its possession was transferred to the national flag carrier in 1995 for setting up the upper space astronomy and cosmology planetarium.

The land was provided to the PIA on the condition that the plan of the structure of planetarium will be approved by the PDA in line with the laid-down procedure and building regulations.

The national flag carrier was also told that land would be utilised for no other purpose except for the construction of planetarium and that at any stage if the project is abandoned, the possession of land will be handed over back to the civic agency.

In addition, the PIA will be responsible to pay the electricity, gas and water charges directly to the respective utility providers, and relevant taxes to both provincial and federal governments.

The documents said the PIA had failed to establish and operationalise the planetarium as agreed and therefore, several notices were issued to it from 2002 to 2008. The allotment of land was cancelled in 2009.

However, the land allotment was restored following at the flag carrier’s request on the condition to pay Rs60 million as penalty until 2015. However, the PIA failed to pay that amount leading to the cancellation of restoration offer in Jan 2017.

Exactly a year later, in Jan 2018, the PIA challenged the cancellation of land allotment in a local court. The matter is still pending with the court.

The national flag carrier is also demanding of the provincial government to pay Rs150 million.

A senior official told Dawn that the revival of planetarium would meet the shortage of entertainment facilities in the provincial capital.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2020