Shops to be handed over to owners after construction, PHC told

NWA shops demolition case

PESHAWAR: The Ministry of Defence on Thursday told Peshawar High Court (PHC) that shops in Miranshah, North Waziristan would be handed over to their lawful owners after construction according to modern designs.

The ministry said this in its reply to the writ petition of residents of North Waziristan Agency (NWA) seeking possession of 8,000 shops demolished during the Operation Zarb-e-Azb. The reply was submitted to the Peshawar High Court through Deputy Attorney General Manzoor Khalil.

The ministry requested the court to dismiss the petition as the court has no jurisdiction to hear the case because the relevant forum under the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) is available to the petitioners.

According to the defence ministry, the petition is disputed and controversial issues of facts cannot be resolved through the constitutional petition. Besides, it pointed out that the petitioners have not annexed proof of their possession with the petition.

“As per the available record, almost 450 kanals state land exists in an area where the total land is nearly 1,700 kanals. Moreover, there are four different categories of claimants including state of Pakistan, alleged private owners, alleged lessee and alleged tenants and the entitlement is to be determined by the political authorities,” the ministry explained in the reply.

However, the division bench comprising Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Ikramullah observed that the main respondents in the case are political agent North Waziristan and Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (Safron) and directed them to submit reply before next hearing.

The court was hearing writ petition filed by Naqeeb Rehman and 77 other people from North Waziristan through their lawyer Abdul Latif Afridi. They requested the court to direct the respondents to give them possession of their destroyed shops and restrain the armed forces from construction work in the Miranshah bazaar.

The Ministry of Defence said the petitioners had to bring proof of their ownerships of the shops. It argued that the area falls within the operational limits of Zarb-e-Azb, where rehabilitation process is under way.

The ministry denied the demolition of 8,000 shops as claimed in the petition. “It would be pertinent to submit that since the buildings/markets in the bazaar area of North Waziristan were in a deplorable condition, being war-ridden, therefore the federal government in wake of rehabilitation efforts has started reconstruction activities, including reconstruction of the shops/buildings in a much better position than what existed before, so that the same could be handed over to their rightful owners/claimants,” the ministry said.       

The petitioners’ lawyer, Abdul Latif Afridi 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 the whole of North Waziristan was under control of the 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.

The petition stated that besides 8,000 shops in Miranshah and over 4,000 shops in Mir Ali bazaar were also demolished. It was submitted that the armed forces neither allowed owners to remove the goods from the shops nor the debris.