PESHAWAR, June 4: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday stayed recruitments in an important project for conservation of water over a writ petition filed by some agriculture engineers challenging the qualification for the key posts.

A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Muhammad Raza Khan and Justice Ziauddin Khattak put on notice the provincial irrigation secretary and the director general of on farm water management and directed them to file comments in reply to the petition till June 11.

The petition is filed by Iqbal Zaib and 19 other agriculture engineers challenging an advertisement of the department published in newspapers on April 19.

The engineers claimed that the project, Conservation of Water and Productivity Enhancement through High Efficiency Irrigation System, required agriculture engineers as per the PC-I of the project, but provincial government had also mentioned the qualification of BSc Honours in Agriculture in the impugned advertisement.

The petitioners alleged that the government wanted to favour some of their favourites for which they had included the said condition in the qualification for the project director and other technical staff.

Advocate Muzamil Khan appeared for the petitioner and gave a background of the project.

He stated that according to a study conducted by various experts the water availability was 5200 cubic metre per capita in the country in 1947 which was reduced to 1000 cubic metre per capita in 2006.

Keeping in view the alarming reduction in the quantity of water below ground, the government in 2006 decided to launch the project in every province. He stated that the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) and Planning Commission prepared the PC-I for the project and decided that the project director should have the qualification of BSc Agriculture Engineering or preferably MSc.

Mr Muzamil Khan stated that it was a very important project as there would be no water available in the coming decades if proper conservation not made in the province.

He stated that first an advertisement was published on Jan 9, 2008, in which the qualification for the project director was mentioned as BSc Honours in agriculture or BSc Agriculture Engineering.

He stated that the petitioners made representation to the government and the Pakistan Engineering Council stating the BSc Honours candidates were not enrolled with the council and they could not execute such a high value project.

The counsel stated that the said advertisement was withdrawn and another advertisement was issued on March 12 wherein it was mentioned that the age of the project director should be between 55 and 60 years.