Chitral settlement case: PHC sets May 12 to hear final arguments

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Saturday set May 12 for final arguments in the Chitral land settlement case.

Barrister Asad-ul-Mulk, appearing before the division bench comprising Justice Wiqar Ahmad and Justice Khurshid Iqbal on behalf of the petitioners, submitted that it was a part heard case and he was ready to commence further arguments. He informed the court that he had already filed his written response to the legal questions formulated by the PHC on December 4, 2024.

The petitioners, who are residents of Chitral, have challenged a government notification from 1975 whereby all “mountains, wastelands, pastures and riverbeds” were declared government property.

In reliance upon the said notification, the title of 97 percent of Chitral’s landmass has been entered in the name of the provincial government during the course of the land settlement process which is currently underway in Chitral.

Barrister Asad said that Chitral was a princely state which acceded to Pakistan as a federated state in 1948 and was merged into West Pakistan in 1969. In 1975, the government of the then NWFP issued the impugned notification which is now being implemented for the first time and which has the potential to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Chitral’s people.

He said that two of the questions formulated by the PHC on December 4, 2024 were of paramount significance (i) “Whether the mandate of land dispute inquiry commission for Chitral was also including determination of right of ownership of common people of Chitral in the immovable situated in Chitral?”, (ii) “Whether people of Chitral were enjoying rights of ownership of property before merger of Chitral by way of West Pakistan Regulation I of 1969, the Dir Chitral and Swat (Administration) Regulation, 1969?”.

The case had originally been instituted in 2019 in Dar-ul-Qaza Swat but had been transferred to the principal seat of the PHC by its then Chief Justice Qaisar Rasheed in view of the gravity of the case and the stakes involved for both sides. Since then the government on one pretext or the other had been adjourning the case.

Additional Advocate General (AAG) Asad Jan Durrani, appearing on behalf of the provincial government, requested the court to adjourn the hearing on the ground that the case had been marked to AAG Muzammil Khan who was busy before the Supreme Court.

The court adjourned the hearing and set May 12 next date for final arguments in the case. Justice Wiqar Ahmad proposed that few cases should be fixed before him as arguments in this case would take substantial time.