PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court on Wednesday directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to respond to a petition against the winding up of the Utla Dam project for supplying drinking water to Swabi and cancellation of its agreement with the contractor.

A bench consisting of Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Shahid Khan also granted interim relief to the contractor, Qalandar Bux Abro and Co, and stopped the government from taking any adverse action against it and encashing bank guarantees to the tune of Rs111.66 million until further orders.

The petition was filed by Qalandar Bux Abro and Co, a joint venture company, requesting the court to declare illegal the decisions taken on July 29, 2024, during a meeting chaired by the additional chief secretary (planning and development).

The meeting tasked the public health engineering department with submitting PC-II for a new feasibility study to explore alternative drinking water options, while the irrigation department was asked to immediately cancel the agreement with the contractor or consultant because the scheme wasn’t reflected in the ADP 2024-25.

Stops it from encashing bank guarantees of contractor

The petitioner also requested the court to declare illegal a letter sent to the petitioner by the directorate general (small dams) of the irrigation department on Aug 7, 2024, declaring that the Utla Dam project had been “closed down” and the contractor should refund the remaining mobilisation advance of Rs111.66 million immediately to prevent the encashing of the bank guarantees submitted by the petitioner in favour of the government.

Advocate Kashif Naseem appeared for the petitioner and said the feasibility study and detailed design studies for the project was conducted in June 2017 by Cameos Consultants. He added that based on the original PC-I of the scheme, Rs1.5 billion was approved by the PDWP to provide 3.5 cusecs of drinking water to 45 villages.

The lawyer said that in response to the advertisement for the construction work of the project, many tenders were received but that of the petitioner was the lowest after which the deputy director (small dams) issued the acceptance letter on July 10, 2018, conveying the approval of the lowest rates of the petitioner.

He said that after the completion of all formalities, the respondents issued work order on Oct 25, 2018, conveying to the petitioner that the firm had been accepted for the work.

The counsel said on the directions of the PDWP in its meeting on Jan 4, 2021, a panel of experts was constituted to technically examine the design, estimates and certain other observations regarding the project.

He said that after considering all the aspects, the design and estimates were reviewed by the PDWP on Jan 27, 2022, and the cost of project was enhanced to Rs2.2 billion.

The lawyer said the experts declared that there was no alternate source, which could be explored for addressing the issue of drinking water to the area.

He said a 2.5km access road had already been constructed to facilitate local dwellers of the area and the project staff.

The lawyer said on Dec 28, 2023, a meeting was held under the chairmanship of the additional chief secretary (P&D), wherein it was recommended to cap the work done at the site and the irrigation department should move a summary for deletion of the scheme from the ADP.

The counsel said the petitioner had challenged the decision of that meeting in the high court on the ground that a caretaker government had no powers to wind up a development scheme started by an elected government.

He added that in Feb 2024, the then advocate general claimed that the government hadn’t taken any decision on the matter and the matter would be decided in the next cabinet meeting.

The lawyer argued that despite recommendations of a technical committee to review the decisions taken in the meeting of Dec 28, 2023, about the winding up of the project, no review had been made and instead, respondents were bent on closing the project.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2024