QAU land reclaimed

Islamabad: The Capital Development Authority (CDA), assisted by the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Administration, the Islamabad Police and the Rangers, conducted a large-scale operation to demolish illegal structures and reclaimed the possession of the land allocated to the Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) in the jurisdiction of Bharakahu Police Station on Saturday.

The dispute over possession of the QAU land by encroachers was continuing for a long time and finally the Supreme Court of Pakistan directed the CDA to get the encroachers evicted, reclaim the land and hand over the possession to the administration of the QAU.

A statement from the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Islamabad said that the operation was conducted on repeated requests from the QAU administration.

The Deputy Commissioner Islamabad, Hamza Shafqaat, while talking to ‘The News’ said that the University administration has even published a public notice, warning the people who have encroached upon the University land peacefully.

“The QAU administration and the students have been protesting against the illegal occupation of University land for quite some time.Therefore, an operation was planned after detailed meetings with the QAU and the CDA,” the Deputy Commissioner said.

The basis of area demarcation was done by the office of the Surveyor General of Pakistan. In today’s operation a total of 80 kanals built up area was recovered by demolishing 12 houses, 15 structures, walls, quarters, library, cattle rooms and guest rooms.

An Additional 100 kanals of open land was also retrieved and handed over to the QAU administration in presence of the CDA staff, the statement issued by the office of the Deputy Commissioner announced.

According to the statement the operation was conducted peacefully in accordance with the joint demarcation report of the Survey of Pakistan. “For the satisfaction of local people a joint demarcation will be carried out on the areas which were disputed and challenged by the occupants. The representatives of the QAU, the CDA and the Revenue Department staff will take part in the process,” statement said.

The operation continued despite heavy rainfall and was completed over the weekend to avoid any disruption or disturbance in the life and academic activities of students. According to the sources the operation is likely to continue over the next four days, till January 9, 2019.