Controversy emerges after dissolution of TCKP

PESHAWAR – While the Khyber Pakh­tunkhwa government has recently transferred employees of the Tour­ism Corporation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (TCKP) into the newly estab­lished Cultural and Tour­ism Authority (CTA), the government is now fac­ing a legal issue as a cor­poration cannot be dis­solved if it has cases pending in courts or if it is facing an inquiry

According to the rel­evant laws, no organi­zation can be dissolved there are inquiries against it by a probe body or cases against it running in courts. At the moment, there are 22 cases running against the Tourism Corpora­tion KP in Peshawar High Court and other courts in Swat, Abbottabad and Is­lamabad.

It may be mentioned here that the provincial government has set up the CTA and decided to merge the TCKP and Di­rectorate of Culture into the newly established CTA. The assets and em­ployees of TCKP have been transferred into the CTA. However, relevant circles have raised the is­sue of the merger.

The Sports and Tour­ism Department had an­nounced that it had dis­solved the TCKP as per three laws, ie Easy Exit Regulation 2014, Com­panies Act 2017 and Companies Regulation 2018. However, these laws also mention that a body, such as TCKP, can­not be dissolved if it has cases running in courts or there is any inquiry related to it.

It may be mentioned here that an inquiry into the Malam Jaba tourist resort case is also under­way involving the TCKP.

Currently, all the ongo­ing schemes of tourism are in progress under the TCKP while the new and upcoming schemes would be undertaken by the CTA.

Secretary Culture, Tourism and Sports Abid Majeed said that be­cause there was no issue with regards to official business, he decided to transfer staff and assets of TCKP into CTA. “There are different laws, one says a corporation can­not be dissolved if it has cases running in courts, but we also have anoth­er law which says that a body can be dissolved even if it has cases run­ning in courts or any in­quiry involving it,” he added. 

“It’s just like if we have a hurdle on one route during travel, we adopt another [alternate] route to reach our destination,” Abid Majeed added

However, a senior law­yer of Supreme Court, Muazzam Butt Advo­cate told this correspon­dent that if the head of a department or even if a chief minister dissolves a body, still it is challenge­able in the court of law.

“Just like a law is made before setting up a body, another law will have to be made to dissolve that body. This is why that if a body like a corporation is dissolved even through an executive order by a chief minister, it can be challenged in the court of law,” he added.

He said that the head of a department cannot dis­solve a corporation him­self. He, however, said that a corporation can be dissolved if the entire cabinet approves so, oth­erwise another law must be made for the purpose.