PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday directed the tehsil municipal administrations of Jamrud and Landi Kotal in Khyber tribal district to issue a corrigendum to remove the name of the former federal minister from the last month’s advertisements for e-bidding of different development schemes.

In a short order, a bench consisting of Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Syed Arshad Ali disposed of a petition jointly filed by MPA Bilawal Afridi and 11 other Khyber residents against the mention of former religious affairs minister Pir Noorul Haq Qadri’s name in the March 19 advertisements published by different newspapers about tendering for different projects.

It will release the detailed verdict afterwards.

The petitioners had requested the court to declare illegal the impugned e-bidding notices of March 19 for what they insisted benefitted politicians, including the people’s representatives.

Observes ads for govt projects shouldn’t carry names of MNAs

They sought orders for the respondents, including TMAs, administration of Khyber district, and others, to re-advertise bidding notices for the Annual Development Programme schemes for Jamrud and Landi Kotal tehsils without the names of any individual.

The bench observed that if the court ordered the restart of the bidding exercise, it would waste time and increase the cost of projects.

It added that the issuance of corrigendum for the impugned advertisements would ensure the removal of the name of MNA Pir Noorul Haq Qadri from them to show that the development schemes don’t belong to individuals.

The petitioners’ lawyer, Mohammad Muazzam Butt, said that two notices were published by different newspapers on March 19 through advertisements declaring that the development schemes were out of the share of MNA Qadri.

He contended that those notices pertained to an ADP scheme or district development plan for tribal areas scheme.

The counsel said that previously, the deputy commissioner of Khyber tribal district had sent letters to the tehsil municipal officers of Jamrud and Landi Kotal on March 14 through which he had communicated approval for Jamrud and Landi Kotal’s schemes to the tune of Rs180 million and Rs220 million, respectively.

He said that the deputy commissioner had written a letter to the director-general of the Sustainable Development Unit at the planning and development department, on March 15 for the release of

funds under the district development plan for tribal areas out of the share of schemes recommended by Mr Qadri.

The counsel contended that the money released from the government exchequer remained the people’s money and no one, including MNAs, had the right to use it for own advantage or publicity.

He argued that under the relevant rules, the government couldn’t give credit of the government’s schemes to an individual.

Advocate Shumail Butt said that those development schemes would be completed through the ADP, while e-bidding had also taken place for them.

He said that the government’s representatives in an area only pointed out schemes, whereas execution work was carried out by the government.

The bench wondered whether it was necessary to mention the MNA’s name in those advertisements.

The AG replied in negative and insisted that huge funds had been approved for those projects and the contracts would be awarded to the lowest bidder ‘on merit’.

He added that the contracts would not be awarded on the ‘directives’ of the MNA.

Mr Butt said that if the entire process began from the scratch, it would waste the taxpayers’ money.

During hearing, the chief justice observed that the projects executed through the people’s money should not carry the names of MNAs in advertisements and inauguration plaques for them.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2022