PESHAWAR, Oct 5: The provincial government on Wednesday swung into action to implement the Peshawar High Court orders for halting release of development funds until next week and produce record of development schemes.

An official source told Dawn that the planning and development department's officials worked in their offices until late hours for early implementation of the court's directives.

He said provincial departments had been directed to produce details of their respective development schemes being carried out in all 99 provincial assembly constituencies.

The source said disbursement of development funds would also be stopped without delay in line with the court orders.

On Tuesday, a two-member bench headed by Chief Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan had ordered an immediate halt to release of development funds and production of the development scheme record during the hearing into a writ petition of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal MPA Malik Qasim Khattak from Karak, who accused the provincial government of discriminating against opposition members while distributing development funds.

The source said the court orders were unlikely to negatively impact on the annual development programme's execution in the short run, adding that the funds disbursed prior to the court orders were enough to carry out ADP schemes.

The over Rs85 billion provincial ADP involves 1,035 schemes, including 632 ongoing and 403 new.

A provincial development planner said on condition on anonymity that the court orders won't hit the pace of work on ADP schemes, adding that the sought-after record would be placed before the court on the next hearing slated for October 11.

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