Lawyer says Balach Shotar not riverbed as per courts’ verdicts

CHITRAL: Reacting to a notification issued by the deputy commissioner Lower Chitral district, a lawyer on Sunday said that Balach Shotar was not a riverbed of the government but the ancestral property of the mehtar/ruler Chitral.

Explaining the facts to the reporters, Waqas Ahmad advocate said that deputy commissioner Lower Chitral had declared Balach Shotar a riverbed owned by the government but the facts were otherwise.

He said that residents of Balach had filed a suit through Zafar Ali Shah advocate against the ruler in the court of a senior civil judge but the court later delivered a verdict in favour of the ruler.

He said that later the predecessor of the incumbent DC and the residents of Balach challenged the verdict of the lower court in the district and sessions judge court.

The sessions court also dismissed the appeal and gave a decision in favour of the ruler that Balach Shotar was not a riverbed but it was the property of the ruler of Chitral.

The residents of Balach, he said, later did not challenge the session court decision but the DC filed an appeal in the high court to declare the Balach Shotar land a riverbed and the property of the government.

However, the high court also declared Balach Shotar as the property of the mehtar/ruler of Chitral upon which the DC challenged the verdict in the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court, he said, later directed the high court to decide the case within a three-month time.

The lawyer said that the high court delivered a verdict in favour of the ruler of Chitral on September 11, 2022, declaring the Balach Shotar land the property of the ruler of Chitral.