PESHAWAR: Members of opposition benches in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly have moved Peshawar High Court against umbrella schemes in Annual Development Programme (ADP) for 2024-25 by provincial government, claiming that the act was in violation of superior courts judgements.

Leader of the opposition in the assembly Ibadullah Khan, Arbab Waseem Khan and 17 other opposition MPAs have filed a joint petition requesting the high court to declare as illegal and also set aside the schemes included in ADP under umbrella/block allocation.

They have also prayed the court to declare as illegal and also set aside all the chief minister’s directives issued subsequent to the passage of the annual budget 2024-25 related to umbrella/block schemes.

The petitioners have sought directives of the court for the government to formulate, implement and distribute developmental schemes and release of funds to schemes as per law, rules, guidelines and dictates of the judgements of the superior courts.

Petitioners term the practice contrary to earlier judgements

They requested that the petitioners and their constituents should not be discriminated against purely out of political considerations in that context.

The petitioners have also sought interim relief, requesting the court to restrain the respondents including the chief minister till final disposal of the petition from taking any steps to execute, distribute, point out, finalise or earmark any scheme out of the projects included in ADP 2024-25 under umbrella schemes/block allocation.

They also requested for suspending the directives of chief minister related to umbrella/block schemes till final decision of the writ petition.

The petitioners belong to different opposition parties including Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-Parliamentarians and Awami National Party.

The respondents in the petition are KP government through its chief secretary, chief minister, his principal secretary, additional chief secretary (planning and development) and secretaries of finance, communication and works, irrigation, planning and development and public health engineering departments.

The petition, filed through Barrister Sultan Mohammad Khan, stated that the ‘illegal’ actions of the respondents clearly violated Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Procedure and Conduct of Business Rules, 1988, and KP Government Rules of Business, 1985, as well as policy guidelines issued by the government in consequence of an earlier judgement of the high court.

The petitioners claim that the chief minister under the name of “CM Directives” was doling out public funds to his political favourites despite the fact that such practice of arbitrary one-man discretionary power had been declared consistently illegal by superior courts including PHC.

The petitioners have also given a table wherein 15 of the umbrella schemes/block allocations have been mentioned related to upgradation and rehabilitation of roads, small drinking water supply schemes, construction of flood protection works, irrigation channels and installation of solar tubewells, district development plans for Peshawar, Charsadda, Mardan, Nowshera, Swat, Shangla, Buner, Upper Dir, Lower Dir, Upper Chitral, Lower Chitral, Kohat, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan and Hazara divisions.

The petitioners stated that the ADP for the year 2024-25 was presented and passed in the assembly by virtue of sheer and brute majority of the government in the province. They contended that despite judgments of superior courts, the respondents included several umbrella schemes in the ADP.

They said that umbrella schemes were distinguishable from the projects that were presented and approved with the required details and particularity and were thus illegal. They stated that the respondents while trying to deceive and sidestep the law and judgements of superior courts were allocating new funds to old umbrella/block schemes in the garb of ongoing schemes.

They said that the action of government by issuing “CM Directives” was a blatant violation of law as developmental schemes and funds were given out on the dictates and whims of one individual.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2024