PESHAWAR, Jan 9: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday expressed annoyance at the delay in completion of Peshawar’s Northern Bypass Road and issued notices to the National Highway Authority chairman and the project director for explanation on it.The notices were issued by a bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Khalid Mahmood during the hearing into senior lawyer Mohammad Essa Khan’s petition against blockade of several busy roads in the provincial capital.

The Northern Bypass Road passes through the northern outskirts of the provincial capital and is considered an important project for reducing load of traffic on other city roads.

The bench observed that last year, the officials had made a commitment about the completion of work on the road within eight months but even after the passage of a year, the road had yet to be built.

It directed the additional inspector general and senior superintendent of traffic police to remove encroachments from all roads of the capital city and convene a high-level meeting to formulate detailed traffic plan to ensure smooth flow of vehicular traffic in the city.

The bench ordered that special care be taken on roads leading to hospitals and educational institutions and that encroachments be positively removed from those roads.

The bench fixed Jan 30 for the next hearing with the direction to the SSP to appear in person and inform it about the traffic plan for the city.

Deputy advocate general Waqar informed the bench that the provincial police officer, the capital city police chief and SSP traffic had field their comments and they had termed the setting up of checkposts on different roads important for security reasons. Deputy attorney general Mohammad Iqbal Mohmand informed the court that the station commander of Peshawar cantonment had taken the stand that the checkposts were established on different roads due to the delicate law and order situation.

The chief justice observed that these checkposts had lost its utility as terrorists had been targeting places and persons at will. He added that the recent incidents of terrorism, including the killing of senior minister Bashir Ahmad Bilour and attack on Bacha Khan International Airport, clearly proved that the barricades and checkposts had failed to serve its purpose.

The chief justice observed that when the high officials of police and security forces had locked themselves in fortified buildings what would be the fate of ordinary people and who would take care of their security.

He added that different city roads had been defaced by the government as without proper planning construction of under passes and flyovers were started in a haphazard manner.

The petitioner could not turn up for being busy with a case before the Supreme Court.

The petitioner has claimed that the entire Khyber Road, which was one of the important roads here, had been declared a no-go area for public transport causing traffic congestion on Sher Shah Suri Road and other arteries.

He prayed the court to issue orders for removal of barricades from the road.