PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday issued a stay order stopping the provincial government from making any changes to a vast piece of land of the Bacha Khan Medical College Mardan recently allotted for the establishment of the Women University Mardan.

A bench consisting of Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Mohammad Ibrahim Khan directed the parties in the case to maintain status quo and ordered respondents, including the provincial government through chief secretary and higher education secretary, to file comments within 15 days on a petition filed against the allotment of the said land.

It directed the provincial government not to make any demarcation or other changes to the land.

The petition was filed by Mardan district nazim Himayatullah Mayar requesting the court to declare the provincial government’s step illegal and without lawful authority.

Asks govt to respond to petition against land’s allocation to set up women varsity in Mardan

Khalid Mehmood, lawyer for the petitioner, said recently, the government had allotted land measuring 300 kanals to the WUM, which was already allotted for the extension project of the BKMC.

He said work on the college’s extension project was underway for which around 990 kanals of land had been allotted.

The lawyer said the said extension project included the setting up of a burns unit, department of nuclear medicine, neurosurgery department, paramedics institute, nursing college, paraplegic centre and other facilities.

He said the government announced in Aug this year to set up the WUM and allotted around 300 kanal of land from that of the medical college’s extension project even without taking the college’s board of governors into confidence though its approval was mandatory.

Babar Shahzad, lawyer for the management of BKMC, said taking the said land from the medical college and giving it to the WUM would harm the interest of the college.

He said the college had already hired consultants and paid consultancy fee to them for the extension project.

Additional advocate general Waqar Ahmad Khan appeared for the provincial government and said he had received the notice of the case a day ago and therefore, the court should give him some time for filing the written comments.

BAIL GRANTED: A high court bench consisting of Justice Nisar Hussain and Justice Mussarat Hilali granted bail to an industrialist arrested by the National Accountability Bureau on the charge of defaulting on the payment of Rs94 million electricity dues to the Tribal Areas Electric Supply Company (Tesco).

It directed the petitioner and owner of Daud Steel Furnace, Daud Khan, to furnish two surety bonds valuing Rs10 million each.

He was arrested on June 28, 2016.

Shumail Ahmad Butt, lawyer for the petitioner, said currently, Fata didn’t fall in the NAB’s jurisdiction, so his client’s arrest was a violation of the decision of the cabinet’s Economic Coordination Committee that the bureau won’t exercise power for recovery of dues in tribal areas.

He said his client’s business was in crisis due to militancy in Bara, Khyber Agency, where his steel furnace unit was located.

The lawyer said the Tesco recently slapped heavy liabilities on his client on account of his electricity connection and that he later contacted the company, which formed a committee in Jan 2016 and directed it to submit report within a week but no report had been filed so far.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2016