PESHAWAR: Employees of the Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) took to the streets here on Thursday, accusing the ruling PTI’s lawmakers of attempting to stop the ongoing crackdown on encroachments in the Ring Road area.

A PDA official told Dawn that PTI MPA Haji Fazl Elahi on Wednesday tried to stop the anti-encroachment drive and had heated exchanges with the civic body’s officials.

He added that the ruling party’s MNA, Asif Khan, on Thursday went to the office of PDA director-general Khalid Mehmood and had an intense argument with him before hurling abuses at employees.

He said that the PDA employees staged a protest by closing the Hayatabad Phase-V Road and Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit corridor.

Accuse PTI lawmakers of attempting to stop anti-encroachment drive

However, MNA Asif Khan denied the allegations and instead accused the director general PDA of misbehaving with him.

He said that he went to meet the official with a delegation of 20 people but he misbehaved and even refused to listen to him.

The lawmaker said that he had taken up the issue of compensation to the owners of land acquired by the PDA and when he asked the official to set up a committee in that regard and address people’s concerns, the official flew into a rage.

He said that he had approached the Tatara police station to register an FIR against PDA officials.

The PDA director-general was not available for comments.

Another PDA official said that the authority has already completed the first phase of anti-encroachment drive on the Ring Road, starting from Ring Road toll plaza and it was in the second phase.

He claimed that the MPA Fazal Elahi held meetings with PDA officials on Wednesday to convince them to stop the anti-encroachment drive but the latter refused insisting the drive was being carried out on the orders of the chief minister.

“On Thursday, MNA Asif Khan had a heated exchange with the PDA DG over the issue and even hurled curses on staff members after stepping out of the office. The employees later staged protests,” he said.

The official said that PDA employees blocked the Phase-V Road and BRT corridor by placing excavators on the road and corridor.

The protesting employees were demanding that the lawmakers should stop intervening in the working of the authority. PDA employees have announced to stage protests on Friday (today) against the lawmakers.

They said that they would stage protests at Ring Road toll plaza and stage a sit-in.

In a statement issued here, TransPeshawar, the operator of Peshawar BRT said that the bus services on the ER-1, ER-10 and SR-10 routes remained suspended due to street protests.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2024