PESHAWAR: The Federal Investigation Agency has submitted the report of its inquiry into different aspects of the Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit project to the Peshawar High Court.

The court had ordered the inquiry last Nov.

An official told Dawn that the report produced by the FIA’s Peshawar regional office had been referred to Chief Justice of the high court Waqar Ahmad Seth for action.

The relevant staff members of the high court were tightlipped about the report’s findings.

However, the official said the report comprising over 500 pages mostly had the relevant documents.

Court had ordered inquiry last Nov

He said he wasn’t sure if the inquiry had found any wrongdoing in the bus project.

A high court bench headed by the chief justice had decided on Nov 14 three petitions related to the BRT project.

In the detailed judgment of the case, the court had formulated 35 points related to the multibillion rupees BRT project asking the FIA to probe it and act against the delinquents if any.

Petitioners Fazal Karim Afridi and Adnan Afridi had challenged the raising of different structures of the project adjacent to their houses in Hayatabad Township.

Another petitioner, Isa Khan advocate, had requested the court to order the construction of overhead bridges or underpasses for pedestrians at a distance of not more than 100 meters.

Both the provincial government and Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) have challenged the high court’s judgment in the Supreme Court. However, the apex court hasn’t issued any stay order to stop action on the judgment.

Since the start of work, the project has been facing legal challenges.

Initially, it was challenged in the high court on multiple grounds. However, the court had declared on Dec 7, 2017, the project in accordance with the law.

Another bench headed by current Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth on Jul 17, 2018, took exception to different matters related to BRT especially delay in its completion, cost escalation and awarding of the contract and had directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to conduct investigation/inquiry regarding its transparency.

The court had directed the NAB to complete the inquiry and submit the report before Sept 5, 2018.

However, the provincial government and PDA had filed leave to appeal petitions in Supreme Court requesting to set aside the said order.

A Supreme Court bench headed by then Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar on Sept 4, 2018, suspended the high court order, so the initial inquiry conducted by NAB could not see the light of the day.

In Nov, the court directed the FIA to conduct inquiry into different aspects of the bus project.

The court had observed the total cost for the 27.37km road project was estimated at Rs66.437 billion, which translated into approximately Rs2.427 billion cost per km which was exorbitantly high.

It added that the project had grossly been mishandled and mismanaged from inception by the provincial government officials and thus far three project directors had been replaced.

The provincial government in its appeal said the referring of the issue to FIA for investigation and to initiate criminal proceedings in matter of BRT became questionable as previously a similar exercise to refer the matter to NAB was stopped by the Supreme Court in a civil appeal in 2018.

Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2020