ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday sought comments from the department of planning and finance Khyber Pakhtunkhwa regarding the construction of new Balakot city in a suo-moto case about the rehabilitation of 2005 earthquake affectees.
Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan, hearing the case, remarked that the court knew the difficulties of the affectees, adding that the court wanted them to be helped.
Chief Secretary KPK Imdad Bosal said the new Balakot project was not completely handed over to the province so far.
The local people had constructed houses at 15,596 of kanal land, adding that the shortage of funds for the project was a main problem.
He said that the KPK province was currently in financial loss, adding that work on the project could be done with the cooperation of the federal government after the approval of the provincial cabinet.
Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan questioned that where the billions of rupees received from the other countries were spent. The lawyer of the affectees said that the funds received for Balakot had been spent on other projects. The additional attorney general said that 11,000 projects had been completed with Rs206 billion.
The representative of economic affairs said that a total of 2.97 billion dollars in aid was received for the earthquake affectees out of which 700 million dollars were given to Kashmir, KPK and the highways authority.
The court adjourned the further hearing of the case for an indefinite time.