PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court on Tuesday stopped Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government from utilising funds till further orders on execution of schemes under the District Development Initiative (DDI) programme.

A bench consisting of Justice Fazal Subhan and Justice FarahJamshed issued notice to the provincial government seeking its response to plea of opposition MPAs requesting to declare the said schemes as illegal as the petitioners had been discriminated against and ignored in the process.

The high court had last year issued a stay order against utilisation of funds on execution of umbrella schemes in the Annual Development Programme (ADP) over a petition jointly filed by the leader of the opposition in the assembly, Ibadullah Khan, MPA Arbab Waseem Khan and 17 other opposition lawmakers.

They had requested the high court to declare it as illegal and also set aside the schemes included in ADP under umbrella or block allocation.They had also prayed the court to strike down all directives issued by the chief minister regarding umbrella schemes after the passage ofthe 2024-25 annualbudget.

Subsequently, MPA of Awami National Party, Nisar Baz, also filed application to be included as petitioner in the said petition, which was accepted by the court.

While the stay order issued by the court has still been in the field, the petitioners filed an application in the said petition stating that the government had now started executing schemes under the DDI programme.

Advocate Sultan Mohammad Khan appeared for the petitioners and stated that his clients were ele cted MPAs but had been ignored by the provincial government in the developmental schemes.He stated that the act of the government was in violation of superior courts judgements.

He argued that after issuance of the stay order by the high court, the government had now been executing schemes under the DDI programme. He contended that schemes under the DDI programme were also in the category of umbrella schemes and the government may be stopped from executing the same.

He pointed out that in different districts the government had floated tenders for execution of such schemes.

He stated that the DDI schemes included roads construction, water projects, etc.

Mr Sultan insisted that the `illegal` actions of the respondentsclearly violated the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Procedure and Conduct of Business Rules, 1988, and KP Government Rules of Business, 1985, as well as the policy guidelines issued by the government in consequence of a high court judgement.

He claimed that the chief minister under the name of `CM directives` was doling out public funds to his political favourites despite the fact that such practice of arbitrary one-man discretionary power had been declared consistently illegal by superior courts, including PHC.

He sought orders of the court for the government to formulate, implement and distribute developmental schemes and release funds for them in line with the law, rules, guidelines, and superior court judgements.The counsel requested that his clients may not be discriminated against in the developmental schemes.

The respondents in the petition are the KP government through its chief secretary, chief minister, his principal secretary, additional chief secretary (planning and development), and the secretaries of finance, communication and works, irrigation, planning and development and public health engineering departments.

The petitioners belong to opposition parties, including Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl), Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Parliamentarians and Awami National Party.