PESHAWAR: The treasury benches in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly (KP) on Thursday opposed the opposition’s proposed suggestion to form a house committee to probe into the much trumpeted Peshawar Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project, however the chair admitted the question for full debate under Rule 48 of Assembly Procedure.
The government would not form any select or parliamentary committee unless it was aimed to facilitate people and provide them relief, said KP Law Minister Sultan Khan on floor of provincial assembly while responding during question hour.
The proceedings of the day were chaired by Speaker KP Assembly Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani.
Sultan Khan said the government did not intend to formulate any select or parliamentary committee as these bodies were used by the opposition for politicking rather than making sincere attempts to highlight problems of people and providing them relief. He said the opposition also politicised the committee that was being formulated to probe the Billion Tree Tsunami Project.
The minister rejected the allegations of corruption in BRT and said that public fund has been utilised on the project in a judicious and transparent way. He informed the House that plants that were being removed during expansion of roads have been planted in Hayatabad and Regi area.
He also clarified that work order for BRT was being issued following the required procedure and completing all the codal formalities.
Earlier, the leader of the opposition participating in the discussion on a question of PPP member Nighat Orakzai regarding BRT Project, said that select committee of parliamentary committee should be formed to investigate corruption and malpractices in the project. He said the government would present proofs of corruption being reported in BRT project.
PPP legislator Nighat Orakzai said that public money has been deliberately misused in the project.
She questioned why a huge amount of Rs200 million was spent on green belts when the government knew that it would be included in BTR project. She contended that Rs600m was spent on expansion of roads while road expanding schemes were included in BRT.
The speaker deferred the question relating to local government department due to absence of concerned minster. The chair put off the proceedings till 10am on Friday.
