PESHAWAR: Parliamentary leaders of treasury and opposition benches in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly will file a writ petition with the Peshawar High Court to seek clarity from the federal government about the western route of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Speaker Asad Qaisar, who chaired the meeting of parliamentary leaders here on Thursday, said petitioners would seek details from the federal government explaining whether the western route would be a complete corridor or an expressway only.

“We are likely to file a petition in the next 10 days and will seek clarity from the federal government about the CPEC western route,” he said.

The PML-N opposed to take the matter to the court.

PA speaker says centre will be asked if western route a complete corridor or just an expressway

Senior minister Inayatullah Khan, who belongs to Jamaat-i-Islami, law minister Imtiaz Shahid, and MPAs Mufti Fazal Ghafoor of the JUI-F and Jafar Shah of the ANP attended the meeting.

Advocate General Abdul Latif Yousafzai and former Supreme Court Bar Association president Qazi Anwar briefed participants about the CPEC project and explained its legal aspects.

Qazi Anwar said the provincial government could take up the CPEC issue on three forums i.e. Parliament, Council of Common Interest and courts, and that the feasible option was to move the court.

He said the project was very important for the country and the region and that the KP government should take up the issue regarding its western route at all appropriate forums.

He said the provincial government could move the Supreme Court on it under Article 184 of the Constitution.

Advocate General Latif Yousafzai said it was the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction to decide disputes between the federal and provincial governments.

He proposed that instead of the provincial government, parliamentary leaders in the provincial assembly should move the high court for relief.

Mr. Yousafzai said the KP government had a strong case on the CPEC’s western route and that the high court could seek details of the project from the centre.

“I suggest that parliamentary leaders move the high court,” he said, adding that the government should use other options to protect the share of the province in the multibillion dollar project.

PML-N parliamentary leader Sardar Aurangzeb Nalotha told Dawn that his party would become part of the petition.

He said the reservations of KP in the corridor project had been addressed so there was no justification to challenge it in the court.

Mr. Nalotha said the KP government was trying to politicise the mega project and therefore, the PML-N would oppose such moves.

He said federal minister for planning and development Ihsan Iqbal was to brief parliamentary leaders in Peshawar on Nov 2 to remove their apprehensions about the CPEC project but Speaker Asad Qaisar conveyed his unavailability to receive him for the purpose.

JUI-F MPA Mufti Fazal Ghafoor expressed reservations about the moving of the court over the CPEC project’s western route.

He said fresh statement of Senator Mushahid Hussain regarding the CPEC project was very encouraging, while the federal government had already promised that the western route would carry out work on all eight parts of the corridor.

The lawmaker said after the federal government’s clarification on the CPEC, there was no need to file petition in the court.

He said his party would support the petition on the matter in the larger interest of the province.

Senior minister Inayatullah and Jafar Shah supported the proposal to move to the court and said the provincial government should take up the issue at different forums.

They criticised the statements of federal ministers for alleging that the pro-India and pro-US groups were opposing the CPEC project.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2016