PESHAWAR, Sept 12: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday sought comments from the NWFP government in a writ petition of four MPAs challenging the ‘unjust’ distribution of funds to the tune of Rs 1,240 million under the Tameer-e-Sarhad Programme and Rs one billion special package by Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Ijazul Hassan and Justice Dost Mohammad Khan directed that the NWFP chief secretary and finance secretary should furnish comments in reply to the petition. After preliminary hearing of the petition the court fixed Sept 27 for further hearing.

The petition is filed by the MPAs, Ikramullah Shahid from Mardan, Pir Mohammad Khan from Shangla, Saeed Khan from Charsadda and Zar Gul from Mansehra. Barrister Masood Kausar appeared for the petitioners and contended that the chief minister in the last year of his tenure started treating members of the assembly in a discriminatory manner totally ignoring the principles of equality and equity.

Justice Dost Mohammad Khan observed that instead of legislation the members of the assembly had been indulging in the construction of roads and streets. He added that although a federal minister was appointed for the entire country but he mostly remained confined to his constituency. The bench observed that there should be transparent mechanism for utilisation of development funds as these were tax-payers hard-earned money.

Barrister Masood Kausar submitted that a development programme under the name of Tameer-e-Sarhad Programme (TSP) was introduced for which Rs1,240 million had been earmarked. He added that under the Special Package for the development of the NWFP an amount of one billion rupees was allocated which was supposed to be distributed among all directly elected members. He said that under the TSP the favourites of the chief minister had been paid as much as Rs 30 million. On the contrary, he added some of the members had been allocated funds to the tune of Rs 10 million, whereas the petitioners were totally denied any such funds.

The petitioners pointed out that the government had declared establishment of a public school at Swabi to be named Fazle Ali Public School and an amount of Rs175 million had been allocated for it. They added that Rs 80 million had been allocated for the Sirajul Haq Public School in Lower Dir district, Rs202.12 million for the Mufti Mahmood Public School at D. I. Khan and Rs 35 million for the Qazi Public School in Nowshera.

The petitioners claimed that the chief minister had allocated Rs 2,545 million for development schemes in Bannu, his home town.

They prayed to the court to declare without lawful authority the discriminatory treatment meted out to them by the chief minister.