PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday issued a notice to the provincial agriculture secretary to respond to a petition challenging the non-extension of an agriculture development project under the Agriculture Transformation Plan (ATP) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

A bench consisting of Justice Ijaz Anwar and Justice Syed Arshad Ali also fixed July 4 for hearing of interim relief plea of the employees of the project, requesting for issuance of a stay order in the matter and also to direct the government not to take any adverse action against them.

The petition is jointly filed by 171 agriculture officers (BPS-17) of the project, including Saba Akbar and others, requesting the court to declare the government’s exclusion of the project in the Annual Development Programme (ADP) 2024-25 as illegal.

They sought directives from the court for the government to extend the project, as 70 per cent of its budget was still unutilised and it could easily be extended for a year. They requested that the court stop the government from taking any action against the petitioners till the final disposal of the petition.

PHC bench fixes July 4 for next hearing of petition filed by employees

Senior lawyer Ghulam Mohyuddin Malik appeared for the petitioners and stated that in the year 2021-22, the provincial government introduced ‘information and communication technology-based improvement of agriculture extension services’ in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under the ATP.

He said that PC-I of the project was approved in ADP with a total cost of Rs2 billion for settled areas and similarly the same project was also introduced for erstwhile Fata for which another PC-I was approved in December 2021.

He stated that in pursuance of the approved PC-I, the provincial government, through the director general of the Department of Agriculture Extension, advertised a total of 171 posts of agriculture officers (BPS-17) with prescribed qualifications.

The counsel said that after scrutiny and interviews conducted by the project selection committee, the petitioners were selected for the said posts and they were appointed on January 17, 2023.

He argued that the petitioners were highly qualified and had mostly completed their PhD and MPhil in the relevant subject.

Mr Malik stated that the petitioners were posted in different districts after fulfilling all codal formalities. He contended that they performed their services to the best of their abilities and appreciation letters were issued to them from time-to-time.

He pointed out that the project was extended by the previous government through a notification on July 26, 2023 for one year from 2023 to 2024. He stated that soon after the general elections in the country, the new provincial government was formed that was trying to sabotage the project, already approved by the previous Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government in the province just to accommodate its own favourite persons

The counsel said that the government did not include the project in ADP. He added that the petitioners agitated the matter by writing appeals to the secretary agriculture, but in vain. He claimed that similar projects were extended in Punjab and Sindh provinces.

He said that around 70 per cent of the fund (Rs1.65bn) earmarked for the project was still unutilised.

During the course of the hearing, Justice Ijaz Anwar wondered what the provincial government intended to do, whether it wanted to continue with the conversion of agricultural land into housing schemes.

The bench decided to seek the response of the agriculture secretary to the plea.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd, 2024