PTI MPA, LG representatives move PHC against DHA housing scheme

PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) Arbab Jahandad Khan and local government representatives moved the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Wednesday against the proposed plan of the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) housing scheme site-II Peshawar.

Arbab Jahandad, who is also chairman of the District Development Advisory Committee (DDAC) for Peshawar, Naveedur Rehman, member Town Council from Dilazak area, Akhtar Ali, District Council member from Budhni village, and Jehangir and Arbab Khudadad filed the petition through their lawyer Ghulam Mohyuddin Malik.

The petitioners challenged the proposed plan of the second DHA housing scheme on hundreds of acres of agricultural land between the Motorway and Ring Road and in Dilazak village in Peshawar district.

It was stated in the petition that the petitioners owned considerable agriculture land in the villages that fall in the limits of the proposed DHA second housing scheme.The petitioners stated that the Director Land of the DHA Peshawar had issued warning to property dealers and people not to acquire land between the Motorway and the Ring Road and on the Dilazak Road without the DHA’s permission or else the violators would be handed over to the police.

It was stated that the DHA Peshawar had already initiated its first housing scheme in Regi Lalma and under the law the DHA didn’t have the permission to build the second housing scheme in one city.

The petitioners claimed that two mega housing schemes had been planned by the DHA in Peshawar and if implemented would upset the local farming community. They said the farmers feared that development of the proposed housing schemes will not only deprive them of large tracts of fertile land, but also adversely affect their livelihood.

They said that under the DHA Peshawar Act, 2009, the Housing Department was bound to notify names of areas and allow the DHA to develop housing scheme on barren land.However, they said that under the proposed second housing scheme, hundreds of acres of cultivated land would be acquired. They maintained that the farmers have serious reservations about the DHA scheme because it would deprive them of their livelihood.

They said the scheme would also cause mass displacement from the populated area.The petition said the Revenue Department of the provincial government on November 12, 2002 had issued a letter to collectors directing them to avoid acquisition of cultivable land meant for agriculture purposes. The letter directed them to prefer barren land for housing schemes.

It noted that on January 10, 2011, Senior Member Board of Revenue (SMBR) also issued fresh directives to all the secretaries, commissioners, district officers Revenue, Collectors, and Land Acquisition collectors in the province to refrain from acquiring agricultural land for housing schemes.

The petitioners submitted that the provincial cabinet had also decided in 1988 and in 1994-95 and later in 2008-13 that agriculture land would not be used for commercial and housing activities in future.

It was also claimed that the proposed scheme will have negative impact on economy and environment of Peshawar as over 60 percent fertile land would vanish.The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government through chief secretary, director land DHA Peshawar, secretary Housing Department, SMBR Peshawar, District Officer Revenue, Commissioner Peshawar, Land Acquisition Collector and DG Provincial Housing Authority were made parties in the petition.