PESHAWAR: Two residents of Lower Dir district have jointly filed a petition with the Peshawar High Court against a long delay in the completion of construction work of the public sector Timergara Medical College in their area and sought orders for the government to successfully execute the project at the earliest to start classes.

Petitioners Rahim Shah Akunkhel and Prof Dr Wali Rehman requested the court to seek a detailed report from the respondents, including the provincial chief and health secretaries, on the funds approved and utilised for the project.

They said the medical college project was inaugurated by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan on July 4, 2015, during his party’s government in the province, while work on it formally began in 2016 but had yet to be completed.

The respondents in the petition filed through senior lawyer Malik Mohammad Ajmal Khan included the chief secretary, its secretaries of communication and works, finance and health departments, Khyber Medical University through its vice-chancellor, TMC project director Dr Shaukat Ali, Lower Dir C&W executive engineer Riaz Wali, the Pakistan Medical Commission through its chairman, and project contractor Haji Mohammad Ayub.

Dir residents also call for report on project funds

The petitioners said the government had duly approved the project and work on it had begun in 2016 but despite the passage of over six years, it was incomplete.

They said the relevant executive engineer of C&W department had declared in June last year that the college’s construction work was in final stages and would be completed in two months and that the building would be handed over to the government shortly thereafter.

The petitioners said Chief Minister Mahmood Khan had stated that classes would begin in the college from Jan 1, 2022, and that a total of 436 posts had already been approved for the college.

They contended that the respondents had individually and collectively debarred students from getting admission to the college without any plausible reason in clear violation of different constitutional provisions.

CONVICTION SET ASIDE: A Peshawar High Court bench has set aside life sentence awarded to a man convicted by a trial court for allegedly killing his cousin.

Justice Lal Jan Khattak and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim accepted an appeal filed by Ghayur Khan and ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove its case against him.

An additional district and sessions judge had convicted the appellant on Feb 17, 2020, under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code and handed over life imprisonment and a fine of Rs300,000 to him.

The appellant’s counsel, Shabbir Hussain Gigyani, said that his client was charged for allegedly killing his cousin, Tariq, over a domestic dispute on Jan 28, 2017, in the jurisdiction of the Chamkani police station.

He argued that there was doubt about the presence of ‘witnesses’ at the place of the crime and that the prosecution’s version was in conflict with the medical evidence.

The lawyer said that the police’s investigation officer had failed to collect any evidence regarding the link of the accused with the commission of the crime.

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2022