SC bars NAB from investigating Peshawar BRT project

ISLAMABAD (APP): The Supreme Court on Tuesday accepted the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s petition and barred the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) from investigating the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Peshawar project.

A three-member SC bench comprising Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and Justice Munib Akhtar heard the case and annulled the Peshawar High Court verdict regarding investigations of the BRT project.

The PHC in 2018 had ordered the NAB to start an inquiry into the BRT project.

During the course of proceedings, the bench observed that the PHC’s decision was based on speculations.

Advocate Makhdoom Ali Khan, counsel for the KP government, said NAB was ordered by the Peshawar High Court to investigate the BRT.

Justice Bandial observed that the KP government was accused of spending more funds on the project than the allocated ones. The BRT contractor was blacklisted, he added.

Makhdoom Ali Khan said the high court had declared the BRT as an illegal project irrespective of the fact that its all regulatory procedures were completed by the provincial and federal governments.

The court after hearing the arguments accepted the KP government’s plea to stay NAB’s probe.

It observed that approvals were obtained from all the competent authorities regarding the BRT project.

Last year, the top court had stopped the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) from probing alleged irregularities in the Peshawar BRT project.

The BRT project, built at a cost of Rs 70 billion, was a 27.5 kilometre-long corridor track with 31 stations and seven feeder routes stretching 62km with 146 stops to facilitate thousands of passengers every day.