PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Friday gave the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government within a fortnight’s time to respond to a plea of former chief minister Mahmood Khan against its move to remove several ongoing development schemes in his native Swat district from the Annual Development Programme-2024-25.

A bench consisting of Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Wiqar Ahmad issued the order after preliminary hearing of the petition filed by Mr Khan, who is also the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-Parliamentarians, requesting the court to declare that act of the government illegal.

He has also sought the court’s orders for the respondents, including the provincial government, to restore and allocate proper funds as per the law to all development schemes mentioned by him.

The petitioner requested the court to grant interim relief by ordering the respondents not to stop funds and payments, already in the pipeline to clear the contractor’s liabilities, until the disposal of the petition.

Ex-CM Mahmood calls for restoration of proper funds for his native district

The respondents in the petition include the provincial chief minister, chief secretary, additional

chief secretary (planning and development), and secretaries of the public health engineering, communication and works, irrigation, finance, planning and development, local government, health, agriculture and higher education departments.

Barrister Sultan Mohammad Khan appeared for the petitioner and stated that his client had been elected multiple times to various important public offices including nazim, MPA, provincial minister and also the chief minister.

He said that the people of the province in general and that of his native area in particular had time and again reposed their trust in him because of his selfless services that he had provided to his people.

The counsel said that the last general elections were held on Feb 8, 2024, as a result of which a new government was formed both at the federal and provincial level. He added that the government of KP formed as a result of these elections was that of the petitioner’s political rivals.

He said that the budget session of the provincial assembly was held in June 2024 wherein the ruling party passed the budget along with the ADP 2024-25 by virtue of its sheer majority.

The counsel said that he was greatly disappointed when it came to his knowledge that many

pro-poor projects related to public welfare and collective development of backward areas had been dropped by the government from the ADP.

He said that in the petition, his client had highlighted details of 26 such development schemes, including restoration of roads and bridges damaged due to flood in 2022, establishment of Agriculture Complex at Matta, rehabilitation and reconstruction of mosques and seminaries in Swat, upgradation of hospitals, restoration of water supply in irrigation channels and system, establishment of a paraplegic centre, etc.

Barrister Sultan contended that the ‘dropped’ schemes were properly as per law previously included in the ADP 2022-23 by the provincial government after approval from the then provincial cabinet and provincial assembly after voting.

He argued that the high court, in a judgement on Oct 3, 2017, declared that a development scheme once passed by the provincial cabinet and the provincial assembly as per the law and rules couldn’t be arbitrarily dropped.

The lawyer contended that the illegal action of the respondents was resulting in deprivation of people of basic facilities necessary for human life, including education, health, drinking water, and sanitation.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2024