ISLAMABAD: The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N has locked horns with the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for jurisdiction over 19 Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) motels and hotels, situated in various parts of the province.

Both governments have been at loggerheads over control of the facilities, which have a combined worth of millions of rupees.

However, a high court verdict has curbed the KP government`s attempt to take control of the 19 lodgings, which the government at the centre insists are federal properties.

The dispute stems from the uncertainty surrounding the fate of thePTDC after the passage of the 18th Amendment, which made tourism a provincial subject.

Recently, the federal government had transferred control over the facilities to the Cabinet Division. But the KP government refused to surrender control of the lodgings.

Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid, who is also the new chairman of the PTDC board, told Dawn that the federal government would pursue legal options to retain control over the facilities.

In keeping with this resolve, a petition was filed with the Islamabad High Court (IHC) by the PTDC management, challenging the distribution of its properties among the provinces.

Justice Noorul Haq N. Qureshi, in an orderpassed on Thursday,suspended a notification issued by the KP govern-ment on Sept 1, assuming administrative control over the management of assets and employees at 19 PTDC hotels in Saidu Sharif, Kalam and Maindam; a resort at Chakdara, and motels at Panakot/Dir, Chitral, Chattar Plain, Besham, Barseen, Balakot, Naran, and Ayubia.

The petition also challenged the disposal of PTDC assets in other provinces. A separate petition has been moved by the PTDC employees in the Peshawar High Court and a one week stayhas been granted.

On Thursday, PTDC counsel Raja Saimul Haq Satti told the court that the managing director of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Tourism Corporation had assumed control of the affairs of the properties in question. He said that while the PTDC was holding meetings to consider the disposal of itsassets in various provinces under the rules prescribed in the Companies Ordinance, the KP government had suddenly taken over the properties, which did not bode well for the tourism industry.

Justice Qureshi ordered the respective provincial ministries not to proceed in the matter until the court`s next order. The case has now been adjourned and the next date of hearing is yet to be fixed by the registrar`s office.

A PTDC official told Dawn that Punjab, Balochistan and Sindh were not interested in taking over the corporation`s properties because they did not want to `own their liabilities`.

Under the 18th Amendment, all PTDC hotels and motels were to be handed over to the provinces and the KP government, run by the federal government`s main political rivals, standsto benefit the most from such transfer of assets as most of the prized PTDC locations are located in the province.

Sources within the PTDC said that the corporation`s board was also considering withdrawing its devolution and may make efforts for bringing a constitutional amendment to this effect.

The federal information minister told Dawn that PTDC was not a devolved tourism portfolio but a private company formed by the federal government under the Companies Act.

This company maintained and acquired assets by generating its own income and therefore no province had right to `grab` its properties.

Signalling that a standoff is in the offing, KP Tourism Minister Amjad Afridi told Dawn before the high court order was passed that the provincial government had taken over all PTDCproperties in the province and `will never vacate them`.

`The provincial government has decided to outsource the PTDC hotels and motels to generate income for development works and the promotion of tourism in the province,` Mr Afridi said.

He said many of the corporation`s hotels and motels had been established on provincial lands, acquired on lease, but the federal government had never paid the lease money to the province.

Cautioning against a confrontation, the architect of the 18th Amendment, PPP Senator Raza Rabbani advised both sides to take the issue to the Council of Common Interests, as under articles 153 and 154 of the Constitution, controversies between provinces and the centre could be addressed at that forum.