PHC re-issues notices to Ministry of Defence and federal govt

Petition by landowners of Miranshah bazaar

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday re-issued notice to secretary Ministry of Defence and the federal government through secretary States and Frontier Regions and directed them to submit reply in a writ petition by landowners of Miranshah bazaar seeking possession of the shops demolished during the Zarb-e-Azb operation in North Waziristan Agency.

A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim also issued notice to Attorney General of Pakistan and Advocate General Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to appear on the next hearing and assist the court on the law points raised by the residents of North Waziristan.

The landowners and residents prayed in the petition that the armed forces should be restrained from construction work in the Miranshah bazaar.

Naqeeb Rehman and 77 other people from North Waziristan had filed the writ petition through their lawyer Abdul Latif Afridi.When the bench took up the petition for hearing, the court was informed that both secretary Ministry of Defence and secretary States and Frontier Regions did not submit reply in the case.

The court re-issued directives to the respondents to submit reply in the case and fixed November 23 for the next hearing.During the hearing, the petitioners’ lawyer submitted that Miranshah bazaar was built on the land owned by two sections of Dawar tribe, Darpakhel and Miranshah Killay, and a section of the Wazir tribe named Borakhel.

He said that 8,000 shops in the Miranshah bazaar mostly belonged to these three tribes. He said there were 68 markets in Miranshah and each market had dozens of shops.

The lawyer said Miranshah was the biggest urban centre in the entire Fata and an important trading centre near the Afghan border. He said the whole of North Waziristan was under the control of Taliban and foreign extremists were also present there till the launching of military operation, Zarb-e-Azb in June 2014.

He informed the bench that before launching Zarb-e-Azb operation, the armed forces gave only three-day notice to the people of North Waziristan, except those from Razmak and Shawal tehsils to evacuate homes and villages. He said over one million displaced people were settled temporarily and a camp for uprooted families was established at Bakakhel in Frontier Region Bannu.

It was stated in petition that the armed forces fought the terrorists and pushed them to the Afghan border. The locals in Miranshah left it to the wisdom of the armed forces to settle the issue.

The petition stated that besides 8000 shops in Miranshah over 4,000 shops in Mir Ali bazar were also demolished. It was submitted that the armed forces neither allowed owners to remove the goods from the shops nor debris of shops. It was pointed out that the owners did not know who had looted the 8,000 shops in Miranshah and 400 in Mir Ali and took away goods and articles.

“First the petitioners were deprived of saleable goods worth millions of rupees and then their shops were demolished and construction material removed from the shops. These acts are not permissible under the law,” the petitioners claimed.

They owners said the armed forces had no authority to deprive them of their land. Their lawyer said the petitioners begged for release of their property so that they could rebuild shops as per the master plan.The petitioners prayed the court to order handover of their land to them and restrain the respondents from construction work on their land in Miranshah.