New Balakot City Project: Contempt proceedings initiated against depts

MANSEHRA: The Supreme Court of Pakistan has initiated contempt of court proceedings against different public sector departments for the non-compliance of its ruling to complete the New Balakot City housing project within 30 months.

“The apex court ordered the heads of different departments to present their reports of their progress in completion of the New Balakot City scheme since its ruling in 2019,” Munir Hussain Lughmani, the counsel for the plaintiff, told reporters here on Monday.

He said his client and a social activist, Sheeraz Mahmood Qureshi, had moved Supreme Court of Pakistan, pleading for contempt of the court proceedings against the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority, commissioner of Hazara, federal secretary Economic Affairs Division, Islamabad, and nine other departments as they didn’t comply with the ruling decided by then chief justice Mian Saqib Nisar in the year 2019 ordering the completion of the New Balakot City housing project within 30 months.

“Ironically, neither the federal government released an amount of Rs1 billion for the resumption of development work, nor the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government retrieved the project’s land occupied by locals in the Bakrial area even after expiry of the 30-month deadline given by the apex court,” Lughmani said.

He said that a two-member bench comprising Justice Ijazul Hassan and Justice Munib Akhtar had ordered the additional attorney general and additional advocate general Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to submit reports of respondents on the next hearing, which would be scheduled shortly.

Lughmani said the apex court in its ruling had ordered the federal government to release Rs1 billion immediately but not a single penny was released as yet and the cost of the project has risen to Rs15 billion.