Notification of land allotment to over 700 prayer leaders annulled

MANSEHRA: The Abbottabad circuit bench of the Peshawar High Court (PHC) has annulled notification of the Senior Member Board of Revenue (SMBR) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through which he had allotted land owned by over 700 mosques to prayer leaders in Tanawal area in the district in 2007.

“With the court ruling, the land measuring over 16,000 kanals has once again become the property of mosques instead of individuals,” Bashiruddin Tanoli, former Tehsil naib nazim Mansehra told reporters on Saturday.

The two-member bench comprising Justice Attique Shah and Justice Arshad Ali annulled the notification of SMBR in which he had allotted land of mosques to prayer leaders on the order of the then chief minister Akram Khan Durrani on October 10, 2007.

“I had moved the SMBR seeking review of his decision as the land couldn’t be transferred to anybody but he turned down my appeal so I moved the court,” Tanoli said.

He said that the court verdict would permanently settle the issue. He said the land could only be used by the prayer leader till he was the custodian of a mosque.