PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Thursday directed the provincial planning and development secretary to file comments on the petition of PPP MPA from Upper Dir district Sahibzada Sanaullah against the provincial government’s alleged discrimination against him in the allocation of development funds.

Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Younas Taheem issued the directions after preliminary hearing into the petition wherein the member from PK-93 Upper Dir requested the court to declare illegal the smaller funds allocation for his constituency compared with adjoining constituencies having treasury lawmakers.

The petitioner also sought the court’s orders for the relevant departments to allocate funds to the schemes of his constituency on par with other constituencies in the province and particularly in Upper Dir and Lower Dir in all development projects.

The respondents in the petition are the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through chief minister; KP chief secretary; secretaries of education, planning and development, irrigation and health departments; provincial development working party through its chairman, and additional chief secretary.

Muzzamil Khan, lawyer for the petitioner, said until Behram Khan of Jamaat-i-Islami, an ally of the ruling PTI in the province, represented PK-93 in the assembly, the constituency was given enough funds in almost all developmental schemes.

He however said after Behram Khan was disqualified and his client was elected, the provincial government reduced funding of the running and new projects in the said constituency in utter disregard of the rules of business and Constitution.

The lawyer said during the term of the former MPA, adequate funds were made almost fairly but after his client was elected, improper and discriminatory allocation was made for the constituency by the government.

He said no allocation of funds had been made for PK-93 in the communication and works sectors bringing all running projects to a standstill.

The lawyer said allocation of funds for MPAs and their respective constituencies using different yardsticks was not only discriminatory but also went against the fundamental rights of the respective populations.

He said all MPAs had equal rights and were required by the law to be treated in accordance with the law but allocation of funds in almost all ADP schemes was arbitrary.

Published in Dawn, February 10th, 2017