Airport project: Govt urged to pay compensation to landowners

MANSEHRA: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MPA Babar Saleem Swati has demanded the federal government to pay the compensation amount to people whose land has been acquired for the airport in Lassan Nawab area of the district.

“The federal government, despite releasing an amount of Rs480 million for the land, is now reluctant to pay this to landowners concerned, this is why the strategically important project is being hurdled,” Swati told reporters here on Wednesday.

The lawmaker said the government had acquired 6276 kanals of land for the airport in 2016, but the PTI-led federal government de-notified its section-4 of Land Acquisition Act. “As the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly has adopted a unanimous resolution moved by me in one of its recent sessions demanding an early completion to this project, the federal government should honour it and expedite the work on this important project,” he said.

Swati, who is also chairman of the provincial assembly’s standing committee on Home and Tribal Affairs Department, said that the airport would attract tourists from within the country and abroad and meet air travel needs of the people across Hazara division and Gilgit-Baltistan.

“Since the mega development projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) initiative are either completed or still in progress, the project would bring a mega economic activity to the Hazara division and this airport could better cater air travelling and defence needs of the near future,” said Swati.