Peshawar family accuses senator of trying to grab their ancestral property

PESHAWAR: The family of late businessman Masood Ahmad has complained that land grabbers are trying to take possession of their property worth billions of rupees in the provincial capital.

The members of the known Peshawar family claimed this property was in their possession for more than 100 years and its documentation done in 1922, 1924 and 1935 is available with them. They blamed a member of the Senate for using his official position to grab the property through fake documentation.

Shahid Yousaf, the son of late Masood Ahmad and a philanthropist and social worker, said two references have been filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) against the accused and those involved in the fake documentation have been arrested in the case. He told The News that they are being harassed to force the family to give up possession of the precious urban property in Peshawar.

According to Shahid Yousaf, Senator Aurangzeb Orakzai managed to summon the Deputy Commissioner Peshawar to the Standing Committee of the Senate through the office of the Senate chairman to explain as to why the mutation of the said property has been declared a fake and blocked.

He said the deputy commissioner appeared before the Senate’s relevant Standing Committee and informed the Senators that the mutation had been blocked and the record of the property sealed due to the filing of the NAB references in the case.

Late Masood Ahmad’s family alleged that the Senator through his front men Ali Gohar and Saeed Ahmad in connivance with the employees of the revenue department of the deputy commissioner Peshawar office tried to get transferred the property through fake documentation in a clear case of land-grabbing.

The deputy commissioner Peshawar had earlier referred the case to NAB after sealing the record and blocking the transfer of the property. Two employees of the deputy commissioner Peshawar office were arrested but no action was taken against the Senator due to his influence. Rather, the members of late Masood Ahmad’s family alleged that they were receiving threats to give up the said property. The family has written to the Election Commission of Pakistan to suspend Senator Aurangzeb Orakzai’s membership of the Senate as he was misusing his position to grab land. It claimed the accused had also obtained stay order from a court against the cancellation of the fake documentation of the property.

The family has informed the Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Pakistan, the Chief Election Commissioner Pakistan, the Chairman NAB, Chairman Senate, Inspector General of Police, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and other high officials about the case for seeking justice and protection from harassment by the accused.

Late Masood Khan’s family noted that the Senator has also been summoned by the Islamabad High Court to respond to the issue of a case of land-grabbing of 300 kanal of land of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) in Bani Gala Islamabad.

Masood Ahmad was the son of Sardar Gul Khan, a prominent businessman of Peshawar, and the son-in-law of noted social personality Chacha Younas, commonly known as Baba-i-Peshawar.