CJ transfers Chitral land settlement case to PHC principal seat

PESHAWAR: Chief Justice of the Peshawar High Court, Justice Qaisar Rasheed Khan has ordered the transfer of Chitral land settlement case from Dar-ul-Qaza in Swat to the principal seat of the PHC, taking notice of grave irregularities committed during the settlement process.

The petitioners, all being affected residents of the district of Upper and Lower Chitral, were represented by Barrister Asad-ul-Mulk. The counsel implored that 97 per cent of the total landmass of the districts of Chitral had been entered in the name of the KP government which was unfathomable, and contrary to the command of Article 172 (1) of the Constitution.

He contended that it appeared that land expropriation rather than land settlement was being carried out in Chitral.

Also present in court amongst the petitioners were former MNA from Chitral Shahzada Iftikhar-ud-Din, erstwhile MPA from Chitral Ghulam Muhammad and elders from Chitral including Mr Inayat-ullah Aseer.

The PHC chief justice read the grounds cited in the transfer application. He concluded by saying that he acceded to the application as it was just and reasonable.

As interim relief of preventing the hand-over of revenue records by the settlement office in Chitral to the Revenue Department authorities, the chief justice said that the same would be placed before a divisional bench.

It is worth mentioning here that the mode and the manner in which land settlement has been carried out in the districts of Upper and Lower Chitral is a bone of contention between the residents of the districts and the government.

Recently even a law and order situation was created near Booni in Chitral which had to be diffused through the intervention of the Chitral Scouts.