By Zahiruddin
CHITRAL: The PTI leaders of Upper Chitral Minhajuddin, Aftab M Tahir , Ghulam Mustafa Advocate and others have demanded of the government to take stern notice of land grabbing in Kagh Lusht area by an influential family of Gilgit-Baltistan who have usurped 850 acres of land with the connivance of district administration.
Addressing a press conference here on Monday, they alleged that two personalities (pointing towards former GB governor Pir Karam Ali Shah and his nephew) occupied a large piece of land at Kagh Lusht near Booni, the district headquarters of upper Chitral on the basis of documents which proved fake later on.
They said that the documents regarding the ownership of the piece of land was not verified by the Achieves Library of the provincial government in Peshawar on the basis of which they took possession of the land from the former settlement officer whose tenure spanned over nine years incessantly.
Showing the documents to the media persons, the PTI leaders said that the occupants of the land recently tried to produce another letter of 1920s to establish their ownership but it also proved forged one whose original copy was not available in the records of judicial council of Chitral.
They said that after their documents proved fake, the land grabbers have took to a news ruse and have filed civil case against each other in the local court of law taking advantage of the indifference of the district administration and the success of any party will prove their ownership.
Expressing their astonishment and anguish over the silence of the revenue department and the district administration over the situation, they said that the situation shows that virtually there is no writ of the government.
They said that instead of instituting criminal cases against the land grabbers for forgery and tempering of documents and dispossessing them of the illegally occupied land, the district administration is still a silent spectator.
They said that a housing scheme has been established by the land grabbers and its plots are being sold to the gullible and innocent people of Chitral at higher rates while a shopping plaza on the bank of Chitral-Booni road is on the verge of completion.
The PTI leaders termed it an acid test for the government and demanded eviction of the land mafia from the illegally occupied land of Kagh Lusht which is public property as per extra-ordinary gazette notification of 1975.
They also demanded institution of criminal cases under the relevant sections of Pakistan Penal Code and erase the encroachment of the public land failing which the people will took to the street and the ideally peaceful atmosphere of Chitral will evaporate away.
When the assistant commissioner of Mastuj, Ishfaq Ahmed was contacted to know his version, he expressed his total ignorance of the episode and said that he did not know even the location of the land.
When his attention was drawn towards the allegedly illegal shopping mall visible on the road, he said that he did see it but he was not aware about its ownership and that he will take a briefing about the land from his tehsildar.
