PHC restrains KP govt from scrapping Utla Dam project

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday restrained the provincial government from scrapping the Rs2.2 billion Utla Dam project in Swabi and encashing the contractors’ guarantees from the bank.

A division bench of the PHC comprising Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Shahid Khan while hearing the writ petition stayed the provincial government from acting on the decisions taken in a meeting held on July 29 last.

The bench also restrained the provincial government from withdrawing the guarantees of contractors from the bank and sought a reply from the government in the instant petition.Earlier, Kashif Naseem advocate, counsel for the petitioners Qalandar Bux Abro and Co, and Syed Yaqoob Shah, informed the bench that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf previous government had launched the Utla water reservoir project to store drinking water for residents for Utla and surrounding union councils.

He said the work was initiated at site and land measuring 1181 kanal was acquired on December 4, 2019. However, some of the politically motivated persons challenged the initiation of the entire project on flimsy grounds and got a stay order suspending the entire process and work for many months.

The petition, he said, filed by project contractors Qalandar Bux Abro and Co, and Syed Yaqoob Shah had requested the court to declare illegal the impugned decision of December 28, 2023, made in a meeting chaired by the additional chief secretary (planning and development), of capping work on the dam and to move a summary for deletion of the scheme from ADP.

The petitioners counsel had contended that the respondents were bound to implement the decision taken in provincial development working party (PDWP) meeting held on November 1, 2021, wherein it was concluded that the project was feasible and no other source of drinking water was available for the entire population of the area.

KashiF Naseem said the feasibility and detailed design studies for the project was conducted in June 2017. He added that based on the original PC-I of the scheme, Rs1.5 billion was approved by PDWP for it to provide 3.5 cusecs drinking water to 45 villages.

The lawyer said in response to the advertisement for the construction work of the project, many tenders were received but that of the petitioner was the lowest after which the deputy director small dams issued acceptance letter on July 10, 2018, conveying the approval of the lowest rates of the petitioner.

He said that after completion of all the formalities, the respondents issued a work order on October 25, 2018, conveying to the petitioner that the firm had been accepted for the work.

The counsel said that on the directions of the PDWP in its meeting on January 4, 2021, a panel of experts was constituted to technically examine the design, estimates and certain other observations regarding the project.

He said after considering all the aspects, the design and estimates were reviewed by PDWP on January 27, 2022, and the cost of the project was enhanced to Rs2.2 billion.The lawyer said the experts had mentioned that there was no alternate source that could be explored for addressing the issue of drinking water shortage in the area.

He said that on December 28, 2023, the meeting was held under the chairmanship of additional chief secretary, P&D department, wherein it was decided to cap the work done at the site and the irrigation department should move a summary for deletion of the scheme from ADP.

The counsel argued that the decision was unlawful as a caretaker setup had no authority to take major policy decisions.He added while the project was approved by the PDWP, the caretaker government had not taken approval from it for removing it from the ADP schemes.The Dec 2023 meeting discussed several issues related to the project including its feasibility and was told by experts that the cost of the project would increase to Rs4 billion thus raising questions about its economic viability.

He pleaded the PHC had then stopped the provincial caretaker government from removing the Rs2.2 billion Utla Dam project from the Annual Development Programme 2023-24, declaring the decision on the matter should be taken by an elected government.

The court, the counsel argued, had asked whether the caretaker government had the authority to remove that project from the ADP.He prayed the court to restrain the provincial government from capping work on the project and order it to continue the scheme of providing clean drinking water to the population of over 60,000 residents in various villages.