PHC stays re-allotment of BKMC land to Women University

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday stayed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s decision to allot land owned by the Bacha Khan Medical College to Women University Mardan.

A two-member bench comprising PHC Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Muhammad Ibrahim Khan also stopped the provincial government from demarcation of 300 kanals of land for the newly established Women University from the land allotted to Bacha Khan Medical College.

The court issued notices to the provincial government through chief secretary, secretary health, Higher Education Department and Board of Governors of the Bacha Khan Medical College directing them to submit replies in the case.

The notice was issued in a writ petition filed by Mardan District Nazim Himayatullah Mayar.

The petitioner’s lawyer Khalid Mehmood submitted before the bench that the previous ANP-PPP provincial government had allotted 991 kanals and six marlas land for expansion of Bacha Khan Medical College in Mardan. He said the government had allotted the land for establishment of Burn Care Centre, Nuclear Medicine Department, Neurosurgery Department, Nurses College, Paramedics Centre and other facilities for further expansion of the Bacha Khan Medical College.

He informed the bench that the land was allotted and PC-1 was being prepared for the establishment of the medical institutions and NESPAK had already started work on the project.

However, he submitted that without prior approval and notice to the board of governors of the college and in violation of the law, the provincial government on August 2016 announced allotment of 300 kanals of the land of the Bacha Khan Medical College for use by the Women University Mardan.

The lawyer argued that this decision was against the law and a grave injustice to the Bacha Khan Medical College as it would affect its expansion plans for establishing direly needed medical institutions.

He said the government could allocate land for the Women University in other places in Mardan district instead of depriving the Bacha Khan Medical College of its land and damaging its master plan. He requested the court to declare the allotment of 300 kanal of land of Bacha Khan Medical College to the Women University as void and illegal.

The court, after preliminary hearing, put on notice the chief secretary, secretary health, secretary Higher Education Department, secretary Communication and Works and Board of Governors of the college. They were directed to explain as under what law and grounds the already allotted land was re-allotted to a university by the provincial government.