PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Thursday asked whether the issues raised in the petition of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Asad Qaisar regarding the alleged unjust distribution of development schemes China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) falls in the domain of the Council of Common Interest or the high court.

Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Ikramullah Khan directed deputy attorney general Manzoor Khalil appearing for the federal government and lawyers for the relevant parties to assist the court on the issue as to whether the matter falls within the exclusive jurisdiction of the CCI and if so, whether the same was duly deliberated upon by the said constitutional organ.

The bench fixed Apr 27 for the next hearing into the petition wherein Speaker Asad Qaisar has sought multiple directions from the court for the federal government to develop the western route of the CPEC and execute several other development projects in the province.

The bench observed: “This court would like to know as to whether the matter agitated in the instant petition falls within the domain of Council of Common Interest, under Articles 153 and 154 of Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan 1973 or this court.”

Seeks the opinion of govt, relevant parties on the matter

Senior advocate Qazi Mohammad Anwar appeared for the petitioner, additional advocate general Syed Qaiser Ali Shah for the KP government, Manzoor Khalil for the federation, and Jahanzeb Mehsud for the National Highway Authority.

At the beginning of the hearing, the bench observed it would first see which forum was the proper one for deciding the matter.

The respondents in the petition are the federation of Pakistan through principal secretary to the president; prime minister through his principal secretary; planning, development and reforms division through its secretary; federal communication secretary; NHA chairman; Pakistan Railways through the railways secretary, and federal finance secretary.

Speaker Asad Qaisar claims that he is the custodian of the provincial assembly, which represented the collective will of the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and therefore, he was duty bound to follow unanimous resolutions passed by the assembly regarding the CPEC.

He said there were five unanimous resolutions passed by the KP Assembly requesting the federal government to develop the CPEC’s western route along with all other development components.

The petitioner prayed the court to issue directions or appropriate orders for the respondents to honour the commitments of the prime minister made on May 28, 2015, in the APC meeting on the CPEC and allocate funds and commence the development projects on the western route of the CPEC.

He requested the court to direct the respondents to make an unqualified commitment that the CPEC’s western route would receive the same quantum of funds which were being spent on the eastern route and that the share and development of western route would in no way be allowed to be usurped by the western route.

The speaker further prayed the court to direct the respondents to provide funds for establishment of eight Industrial Parks under CPEC, provide electricity, gas, telephone lines, fiber optics, railway lines and all other relevant services to the aforesaid industrial parks, include the industrial parks in economic, transport and social sector policy, and establish IT development programs at the sites.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2017