PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Highway Authority (KPHA) to fix all potholes on the Swat Expressway using quality material and produce the progress report by Sept 28.

A bench consisting Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Fazal Subhan was informed by the project director of Swat Expressway that the highway was found to be uneven at 34 points during a recent inspection carried out on the court’s orders.

He said the repair of the portion with more bumps would be completed by Sept 22, whereas the overall work would be completed by Oct 15.

The court had taken notice of uneven surface of the Swat Expressway at different spots a few months ago and ordered the KPHA to carry out its inspection.

Directs provincial highway authority to produce progress report by 28th

The KPHA managing director and the Swat Expressway project director attended the hearing.

The bench observed that earlier on the court’s orders, some repair work was carried out on the expressway but the quality of work was substandard.

The chief justice directed that this time around, they should ensure that the repair work was of fine quality as thousands of vehicles plied the road daily.

An additional advocate general told the bench that work on Phase-II of the Swat Expressway had begun.

The chief justice observed that the contract should be given to a firm of repute.

The bench observed that the expressway had been constructed with the taxpayers’ money, which shouldn’t go to waste.

It added that the relevant officials should avoid taking any monetary commissions in the project.

The bench asked officials whether there was any mechanism to carry out repair works of major roads without the pointation of the high court.

The bench asked them that if they had travelled on the Hazara Motorway or other motorways, these had even surface without bumps.

It added that if there were some uneven spots that were repaired by the National Highway Authority on the orders of the high court.

The AAG informed the bench that the Swat Expressway was constructed by the Frontier Works Organisation and it had also been collecting the toll tax on it.

He added that the FWO had the expressway contract for 25 years and was responsible for its maintenance.

PENSION PAYMENT ORDERED: The high court ordered the award of ‘pensionary benefits’ to the 75-year-old widow of a retired military official, who had died in 2008.

A bench consisting of Justice Mohammad Ibrahim Khan and Justice Syed Arshad Ali held that petitioner Dilshad Begum was entitled to the pensionary benefits and ordered the respondents, including the defence ministry, to release pension of her husband to her within two months.

The petitioner’s husband, Khan Afzal, had served in the artillery regiment of the Pakistan Army.

The petition was filed against the defence ministry through its secretary, controller military accounts, and commanding officer of the Artillery Regiment.

The petitioner’s counsel, Saifullah Muhib Kakakhel, contended that his client’s husband retired from the Pakistan Army in 2005 after serving it with dignity and honour.

He said the petitioner’s husband received pension from 2005 until his death in 2008, but she was denied that afterwards.

The lawyer argued that petitioner was pushed from pillar to post for two decades to claim those pensionary benefits but in vain.

He said the petitioner was in poor health and had nobody around to care for her financially, while the pension she was entitled to was also denied.

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2022