PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday disposed of two petitions seeking the supply of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to Lower Chitral areas after learning that the federal government had agreed to set up three LPG plants in the northern district.

A high court bench consisting of Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid and Justice Ijaz Afzal was told by provincial advocate general Amir Javed that the provincial government would spend Rs3.5 billion on the installation of those plants to supply LPG to 12,000 households in Chitral.

He said the residents won’t get the subsidybutstill the LPG price would be almost half of what they paid for a gas cylinder.

The bench was hearing the two petitions challenging the shelving of a project by the energy ministry for the provision of LPG to Lower Chitral areas.

The petitioners, including former Chitral MNA Shehzada Iftikharuddin and local social activist Razitu Billah, had requested the court to order immediate gas supply by installing the LPG Air Mix Plant for Chitral valley comprising Drosh, Ayun Broze and Chitral Town.

Court disposes of petitions seeking LPG supply to northern district

The petitioners were represented by lawyers Ali Gohar Durrani and Sher Haider Khan respectively, who requested the court to declare illegal a Jan 12, 2021,order of the energy ministry to shelve the project.

They contended that the project was vital for the survival of forests in the area and if the alternate source of energy was not provided to the residents, forests would vanish.

Petroleum secretary Mohammad Mehmood also turned up and said the government had already acquired land to install gas plants.

He added that the IMF’s tough conditions for loans won’t allow the federal government to subsidise gas supply to the residents.

The AG said the Economic Coordination Council had decided in 2020 to shelve the project as its operational costs were very high, but the government recently agreed to launch it with the help of the machinery already acquired.

He said the government would encourage the private sector to come forward for setting up more plants.

The petitioners had said earlier in pursuance of the directives of the federal government, the collector (land acquisition) had issued a notice under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act on April 17, 2018, and the process had been completed as landowners had also received compensation.

The bench observed that the project was of immense importance as trees had been ruthlessly chopped down for use as fuel.

Meanwhile, the bench also took up for hearing other petitions pertaining to environmental degradation and fixed May 4 for next hearing.

Several government officials appeared before the court including forest secretary Abid Majeed, Galiyat Development Authority director-general Khalid Mehmood, additional advocate general Syed Sikander Hayat Shah, National Accountability Bureau additional prosecutor general Mohammad Ali, deputy attorney-general Ubaidullah, mines and mineral development secretary Aamir Lateef, commissioner of Hazara division Aamir Sultan Tareen, director-general (mines) Mohammad Naeem and lawyers Asadul Mulk, Malik Jamal Khan and others.

About the issue of leasing out property of the Shimla Hill Park to a private contractor for commercial purposes by Abbottabad’s town municipal administration, the bench was informed that the government had abandoned that project.

During the last hearing, the bench had taken notice of the issue and stayed the lease of the property to the private contractor.

It wondered how the town municipal administration could lease out a place of environmental importance for commercial purposes.

Forest secretary Abid Majeed said his department was keeping an eye on the illegal felling of trees in government forests.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2023