Haripur villagers protest land lease, threaten agitation

HARIPUR: local leaders belonging to different political parties, social activists and villagers here on Thursday staged a protest against the lease of land from village Pharhari and threatened agitation if the lease was not cancelled.

Led by former provincial minister Qazi Muhammad Asad Khan, former MPA and provincial leader of QWP Dr Faia Rasheed, PPP’s divisional leader Jehanzeb Khan Tanoli, Zulfiqar Qureshi and social activist Irum Fatima, the protesters marched on GT Road from District Secretariat to Siddiq-e-Akbar Chowk. The protesters were carrying banners and placards inscribed with slogans highlighting the environmental and social impact of lease.

The speakers said that the hilly areas of 800 kanals of land surrounding their village were unlawfully leased out by the mine and minerals department for excavation of stone. They said that the department has totally ignored the environmental laws and leased out the hilly land which would leave a disastrous impact on the health, livelihood sources of the local population besides damaging the natural water sources, grazing areas and the forestland.

The climatic impact had already wreaked havoc to the natural resources in the country and efforts were being made to protect mother nature but mine and mineral department’s officials of KP who were politically influenced have ignored the disastrous results of their decision, the protesters added sharing the future impacts of the excavation.

They termed the lease a politically motivated act and criticized the local elected representatives for their failure in protecting the rights of the people of Haripur.

The protesters threatened to disallow excavation by force if the lease was not cancelled. Later the political leaders met Deputy Commissioner Haripur Shauzab Abbas and shared with him the concerns of the villagers and asked him to intervene. The DC told the political leaders and villagers that he had already written to Environment Protection Agency KP for detailed report and till the arrival of report he had imposed section 144 CrPc banning every kind of lease activity from the leased area under question.