PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has stopped the provincial caretaker government from removing Rs2.2 billion Utla Dam project from the Annual Development Programme 2023-24 declaring the decision on the matter should be taken by an elected government.

A bench consisting of Justice Ijaz Anwar and Justice Syed M. Attique Shah also stopped the government from encashingbank guarantees by the project’s contractor.

During a hearing early this month, the court asked whether the caretaker government had the authority to remove that project from the ADP.

It wondered when the scheme was approved by an elected government, how it could be revised in terms of Section 230 of the Elections Act.

Declares decision about project should be taken by elected govt

The petition is filed by project contractor Qalandar Bux Abro and Co that requested the court to declare illegal the impugned decision of Dec 28, 2023, made in a meeting chaired by the additional chief secretary (planning and development), of capping work on the dam and to move a summary for deletion of the scheme from ADP.

The petitioner requested the court to declare that the respondents including the secretary planning and development and director general (small dams) irrigation department, could not be allowed to cap, halt, suspend, cancel and/or terminate work on Utla Dam project in Swabi district for the default of the surveyors, engineers or officials of the irrigation department and others.

Provincial advocate general Aamir Javed said while the summary for revising the scheme was placed before the provincial cabinet, it had decided to leave the matter to the new government.

The petitioner’s counsel, Alamzeb Khan, contended that the respondents were bound to implement the decision taken in provincial development working party (PDWP) meeting held on November 1, 2021, wherein it was concluded that the project was feasible and no other source of drinking water was available for the entire population of the area.

He said the feasibility and detailed design studies for the project was conducted in June 2017. He added that based on the original PC-I of the scheme, Rs1.5 billion was approved by PDWP for it to provide 3.5 cusecs drinking water to 45 villages.

The lawyer said in response to the advertisement for the construction work of the project, many tenders were received but that of the petitioner was the lowest after which the deputy director small dams issued acceptance letter on July 10, 2018, conveying the approval of the lowest rates of the petitioner.

He said that after completion of all the formalities, the respondents issued a work order on October 25, 2018, conveying to the petitioner that the firm had been accepted for the work.

The counsel said that on the directions of the PDWP in its meeting on January 4, 2021, a panel of experts was constituted to technically examine the design, estimates and certain other observations regarding the project.

He said after considering all the aspects, the design and estimates were reviewed by PDWP on January 27, 2022, and the cost of project was enhanced to Rs2.2 billion.

The lawyer said the experts had mentioned that there was no alternate source that could be explored for addressing the issue of drinking water shortage in the area.

He said that on Dec 28, 2023, the meeting was held under the chairmanship of additional chief secretary, P&D department, wherein it was decided to cap the work done at the site and the irrigation department should move a summary for deletion of the scheme from ADP.

The counsel argued that the decision was unlawful as a caretaker setup had no authority to take major policy decisions.

He added while the project was approved by the PDWP, the caretaker government had not taken approval from it for removing it from the ADP schemes.

The Dec 2023 meeting discussed several issues related to the project including its feasibility and was told by experts that the cost of the project would increase to Rs4 billion thus raising questions about its economic viability.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2024