FIA initiates probe into Peshawar BRT

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has started probe into the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Peshawar case.

A senior spokesperson of the FIA, when contacted by The News on Tuesday, on condition of not being named confirmed the probe into the BRT case has been started as per the direction of the Peshawar High Court.

The KP government has already announced that it will approach the Supreme Court against the PHC decision in order to block the FIA probe, which if allowed is feared to bring a lot of embarrassment for the PTI and its government in KP.

Not only the Information Minister KP Shoukat Yousafzai has said that the provincial government will challenge the PHC’s recent decision, but the KP’s advocate general Shumail Ahmad Butt also stated last week that the government intends to file its appeal before the SC against the PHC decision this week.

The PHC bench comprising Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Ahmad Ali had handed down the judgment on BRT on Nov 14 and directed the FIA to probe the Project and submit the report within 45 days.

In 2018, the PHC had directed the NAB to probe the BRT but then the KP government approached the apex court and got a stay order. On Sep 5, 2018, a three-judge apex court bench headed by the then Chief Justice Saqib Nisar had suspended the operation of the PHC judgment.

The suspension had come the same day the NAB was to submit a report to the PHC. After Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth took over as the PHC chief justice, he and another judge, Justice Mussarat Hilali, had directed the NAB to probe the rising costs of the BRT project and the government’s inability to complete it in the six months it had promised at the very outset. Now again on November 14, the PHC referred the case to FIA for inquiry noting that the project is grossly mismanaged and mishandled, launched without feasibility study, contains false and deceptive financial model, have poor planning that led to 35% increase in its cost and a lot more.

“Probable questions” and “points to ponder” included in the judgment for FIR probe seek response to queries that hint at a possible shady deals, corruption and nexuses between top political and bureaucratic players.

The judgment said that the project was initiated without any vision and plan by the PTI government, and raised the question why the project was pushed for approval without proper feasibility and PC-I.

Some of the really alarming “Points to Ponder” raised in the judgment include: What is the nexus between Parvez Khattak & DG PDA Wattoo, Azam Khan & DG PDA Israr, Shahab Ali Shah & Shah Muhammad, minister transport? How these nexuses were created in order to manipulate desired shares; Weekly meetings were convened in the CM House. Despite that the project was not well coordinated resulting in loss to the public exchequer. It needs to be studied why important decision for procurement of consultancies and other related matters were taken and acted upon when the project was not approved;

Why a consulting firm (Calsons and Maqbool) was hired when they were blacklisted for a similar project in Punjab;

The consulting firm (Calsons & Maqbool) gave expensive vehicles to secretary transport, DG PDA and Commissioner Peshawar. Why these vehicles were accepted when all these officials were enjoying their respective fleet of vehicles;

Who took the decision during CM meeting to procure 220 buses, when only 65 buses are being used in Punjab for comparatively longer route;

The contract of the iron grill installed on the BRT track was given out on exorbitant prices and a bureaucrat and a former provincial minister were the sleeping partner of the contractor. Full payment was made in advance without checking any quality and quantity by the PDA; Design of the iron grill was changed to make the contract more profitable in monetary terms;

The PMU (Project Management Unit) created so as to overlook BRT implementation has been closed in June 2019 despite the fact that project is still going on. The intent is to destroy all the record for future inquiry/investigation if required; For the detail engineering design low level consultant was hired and they were not capable for such a mega project. Supervision of the project as also awarded to the same consultant;

From the day first, all activities were conducted in haphazard manner resultantly existing structures were wasted and not properly utilized; Main contractor further sublet the work to the sub-contractors resultantly quality of work damaged as the sub contractor does not have the expertise required; The moment of shame was observed while dismantling of the structures units constructed during the project but no fulfilling the requirement of smooth operation of the bus service.

Before raising the above “Points to Ponder, the judgment said that the visionless PTI government has concentrated loaned money in one city ignoring people of the remote areas. The judgment also highlighted several serious shortcomings and violations in the project and its implementation.

Those named in the judgement judgment have denied being guilty of any wrongdoing in the project.