Demolition operation at Harno put under question

ABBOTTABAD: Two protracted property disputes involving significant investments by overseas Pakistanis have cast a spotlight on the local administration.

The cases include a recent demolition operation in Harno and a four-decades-old unresolved dispute in Ayubia.A controversy erupted in the scenic tourist spot of Harno, Abbottabad, after the district administration demolished a newly constructed building of an amusement park owned by an overseas Pakistani, Abid Ali.

Ali, who spent over 20 years working in Saudi Arabia, said he invested his life savings-approximately Rs80-90 million-to establish the tourism-oriented facility.

He maintains that the structure possessed all requisite legal approvals, including No-Objection Certificates (NOCs) from the Irrigation Department and a building plan approved by the GDA. However, the demolition was carried out despite a status quo order issued by a local court.

“I possessed every legal document-ownership papers, NOCs, approved maps-yet my building was singled out. The administration acted as if the court order did not exist,” Ali alleged, claiming the operation was carried out “under pressure from influential elements,” while hundreds of other illegal structures in the area remained untouched.

Assistant Commissioner of Galiyat, Shamimullah, defended the operation, stating it was conducted within the High Flood Level (HFL) zone to restore natural waterways. However, he did not clarify why numerous other unapproved constructions nearby were spared.

The GDA officials acknowledged that the building plan had initially been approved but said the Irrigation Department later revoked its NOC on directives from the provincial government under the River Protection Act.

Abid Ali has since appealed to the Peshawar High Court (PHC) chief justice, the prime minister, and multiple human rights organizations, seeking a judicial inquiry, compensation, and a technical survey to determine the actual boundaries.

In another long-running case, PIA Captain (Retd) Rafique Ahmed Shaikh, a 76-year-old Canadian citizen, has been locked in a four-decade struggle with the GDA over two commercial plots in Ayubia’s Ghora Daka area, purchased by his family in 1964.

“The plots, fully paid for and legally converted to commercial status, remained undevelopable because the GDA never provided an access road. Without a road, construction was impossible, yet they issued notices for non-construction,” Shaikh said.

His ordeal worsened in 2019 when he discovered that his 1,100-square-yard commercial plot had been cancelled and re-auctioned by the GDA for “non-construction.” “They created the impossibility and then punished us for it. It is a cruel and absurd injustice,” he added.

The second plot became entangled in controversy after a former GDA official allegedly persuaded him to convert it to residential use, a change the authority later denied. The approval letter repeatedly went “missing” from official files. The GDA subsequently issued encroachment notices and imposed penalties, compounding the family’s ordeal.

Now in poor health,) Shaikh appealed to the PHC for restoration of his plots, allotment of alternative land, or compensation at current market value for decades of lost revenue.GDA Director General Shah Rukh, when contacted, denied any deliberate wrongdoing and attributed the matter to a “legacy problem” inherited from predecessor bodies