PESHAWAR: Giving the last chance to the district coordination officers and district officer revenues across the province, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday directed them to clear all encroachments from the graveyards before the next hearing or face contempt of court proceedings.
A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan and Mrs Justice Irshad Qaisar issued the directives to the Peshawar administration and 24 other districts of the province in suo moto case and while hearing writ petitions.
The bench directed the district administrations across the province to start grand operation for demolition of illegal structures built on graveyard land. The District Officer Revenue (DOR) Peshawar, Charsadda and Mansehra and Human Resource District Officer (HRDO) Mardan appeared in the court and presented progress report.
The DOR Peshawar’s report noted that the district administration had cleared encroachments on 441 kanal of graveyards in the city. The DOR Charsadda said the administration had cleared 300 kanals of graveyard land from encroachment and demolished 45 shops constructed there.
The HRDO Mardan’s report said the district administration had cleared 26 kanal of land out of 119 kanal and 16 marlas graveyards land during the operation. The DOR Mansehra said the district administration cleared 32 kanal of graveyard land from encroachments out of 47 kanal.