ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has extended the stay order against the Peshawar High Court’s ruling over Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project.
A two-member bench of SC including Justice Umar Ata Bandial conducted hearing the Peshawar BRT project case. The verdict of the PHC was challenged by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and the Peshawar Development Authority (PDA).
During the hearing, Justice Umar Atta Bandiyal said that the government should respond to the reservations raised by the applicant over the plea challenging the verdict of the PHC.
The government is the custodian of the taxpayers’ money, Justice Bandiyal remarked and added that it looked like the provincial government was moving one step forward and two steps back on the mega project.
He asked that when the project would be completed? The lawyer of the KP government said that the date of the completion of the project was 31st July but the construction work on the project is suspended from the last 25 days due to coronavirus pandemic.
“The contractor has not given new date in this regard, yet,” he added. The court adjourned the hearing of the case for an indefinite period.
In December last year, a five-member special inquiry team of the FIA, KP, had started a probe into alleged irregularities in the Peshawar BRT project in line with the PHC’s directions. Work on the 27-kilometer BRT began in 2017, under the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government. The project envisioned to provide a public transportation corridor, running east to west, to the city of nearly two million.
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