PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court has directed the project director of Timergara Medical College in Lower Dir district to positively file comments within a fortnight in a petition challenging a long delay in the completion of work on the college.

A bench consisting of Justice Mohammad Faheem Wali and Justice Mian Abdul Fayaz expressed annoyance over non-filing of comments by the project director (respondent No. 6) despite repeated notices and warned that if he failed to file the same he should appear in person on March 12, next date of hearing, and apprise as to why the orders of this court had not been duly complied with.

The bench observed that it appeared that he was purposely avoiding compliance of the orders of this court.

The bench directed assistant advocate general Rahimullah Chitrali to submit the requisite comments within a fortnight.

Directs project director to appear in person if he fails to file comments

The bench also directed him to submit comments of Khyber Medical University’s vice-chancellor, who was one of the respondents in the petition.

The bench was hearing a joint petition, filed in 2022, of two Lower Dir residents Rahim Shah Akunkhel and Prof Wali Rehman, seeking the court’s orders for the government to complete the college project at the earliest for the start of classes.

The petitioners also called for the production of a detailed report by the respondents, including the provincial chief and health secretaries, on the funds approved and utilised on the project.

They also requested for taking action against the officials responsible for the delay.

The respondents in the petition included the chief secretary, secretaries of the communication and works, finance and health departments, Khyber Medical University through its vice-chancellor, TMC project director Dr Shaukat Ali, Lower Dir C&W executive engineer Riaz Wali, the Pakistan Medical Commission through its president, and project contractor Haji Mohammad Ayub.

The petitioners’ lawyer, Malik Mohammad Ajmal, pointed out that for the last couple of years the project director had failed to submit the relevant comments.

He said the medical college project was inaugurated by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan on July 4, 2015, during his party’s previous government in the province, while work on it formally began in 2016 but had yet to be completed.

He said the government had duly approved the project and work on it had begun in 2016 but it was still incomplete.

The counsel said the relevant executive engineer of C&W department had declared in June 2021 that the college’s construction work was in final stages and would be completed in two months and that the building would be handed over to the government shortly thereafter.

He contended that the then chief minister, Mahmood Khan, had also announced that the college would begin classes on Jan 1, 2022, and that a total of 436 posts had already been approved for the college.

The lawyer argued that the respondents had individually and collectively debarred students from getting admission to the college without any plausible reason in clear violation of different constitutional provisions.

He stated that after the passage of the Constitution (Eighteenth Amendment) Act, 2010, it was obligatory on the provincial government to ensure that students of respective areas should be receiving education as a fundamental right at all tiers of the education system, and this would be only possible if all the respondents owned their responsibilities.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2025