SC extends stay order against Peshawar BRT probe.

ISLAMABAD -- The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Tuesday extended stay orders against the Peshawar High Court (PHC) impugned judgment dated 14-11-2019 on Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Project, and sought reply from the Khyber Pakhtunkhawa government in this regard.

A two-member bench of the apex court comprising Justice Umar Ata Bandial and Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed heard the case against the PHC ruling regarding structural change in the BRT project.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) had challenged the PHC verdict. During the course of proceedings, Justice Bandial said the provincial government could not escape from objections about the transparency of the project.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government's counsel prayed before the court that the completion date of the project was July 31. However, the construction work came to a halt for 25 days due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. He said a new completion date had not been given by the contractors as of yet.

Justice Umar Ata Bandial said the BRT project was being made from the taxpayer's money and the provincial government was responsible for utilising the funds in a transparent manner. He said the government was custodian of the tax payers' money and questions would be asked if the money was not used properly. He said it seemed that the provincial government was moving one step forward and two steps back on the mega project.

Extending the stay order against the PHC's earlier judgment, the apex court sought a reply from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on objections raised by the petitioner and adjourned the hearing till date in office.

In November last year, a bench of the Peshawar High Court headed by Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth had directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) authorities to probe the 35 BRT points while the FIA was also asked to look into various points including total cost of 27.37 kilometers road project.

The apex court had granted a stay against the PHC impugned judgment on February 03, 2020 and had stopped FIA from carrying out investigation against the BRT project while it had also sought the detail of the estimated cost of the project i.e. what was its initial cost and date for completion, and when it would be completed.

KPK Chief Secretary, Secretary Local Government and Rural Development and Secretary Transport Department in December, 2019, had jointly filed an appeal under Article 185(3) of Constitution...