Gujranwala Development Authority spokesperson Babar Mirza told The Express Tribune that four truck-loads of 32 temporary encroachments were taken away. He said notices had been served on 130 poeple, most of them fast-food and juice stall-owners and pushcart vendors.

As many as 23 permanent encroachments, concrete structures built by businesses in front of their shops, were demolished.

The areas cleared of encroachment on the first day of the drive were Model Town market, Gol Park, Maulana Syed Mujaddadi Road, Gondalanwala Road and Sangam Road.

As many as 20 people, 15 employees of two sweets shops (Suleman Sweets and Lala Sweets) in Model Town market and five of shops on Gondalanwala Road, were arrested on charges of obstructing public servants from discharging their duties. These workers were detained at Model Town police station.

Muhammad Irfan, owner of Suleman Sweets whose 12 workers were arrested, alleged that most shops with similar encroachments were left out of the drive. He said the administration did not notify the businesses about the operation.

About his workers, he said the police were holding them without any FIR against them. He said he had requested bail for them but was told to apply on Monday. They said they had orders from the commissioner that no one be released without prosecution.

GDA spokesperson Babar Mirza, in charge of the anti-encroachment drive, rejected the allegation that the administration had been partial in the crackdown.

He said the drive would continue on Monday and that all encroachments in the area would be cleared.

He said the commissioner had directed the GDA to clear all encroachments along Gondalanwala Road so that work to widen the road, that linked Model Town to the GT Road, could be started on schedule.

On Monday, the operation would continue on Jinnah Road, Kot Bulla and Lorry Adda areas.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 8^th, 2012.

The report is based on survey of Jathna, Aroop, Khizer Chak and Sangowali villages whose farmland falls in the site selected along Sialkot Road near Nandipur.

“The landowners who supported the idea will be compensated at the rate of 48 marlas (roughly two and a half kanals) for each acre of farmland that they surrender to the GDA,” Assistant Director (Town Planning) Ahsan Ullah Cheema told The Express Tribune.

Cheema, one of the four officials who carried out the survey, said responses from most of the 150 landowners had been obtained during the campaign that lasted till Thursday. He said the land would be purchased from the landowners who opposed the idea of swapping their farms with plots in the colony, second option in the survey form given to the landowners. The remaining, he said, asked the team for some time to discuss the two options with their families.

He said nearly 1,200 acres of land will be acquired for the colony, about 400 acres more than what the GDA governing body had approved earlier.

The assistant director said the additional land would be used to establish recreational facilities including a park. He said governing body’s approval for the additional land would be sought in the next meeting. GDA Director General Hasan Raza Jafri has already declared  ‘reserved’ the initially-approved land under the Section 7 of the Land Acquisition Act in a meeting 20 days ago.

Deputy Director (Estate Management) Mirza Shah Zaman Baig told the Tribune that an advertisement campaign for the colony, named GDA City, will start in another 15 days and applications for allotment of plots would be opened within one-and-a-half month. He said the GDA was also considering setting up a power generation plant for the colony on Nandipur Canal.

The project was approved four months ago.

The GDA estimates that the population of the four villages is between 30 and 33 thousand. The most populous village, Aroop, has a population of about 15,000. Most of the landholding is in one-acre, three-acre, 10-acre and 15-acre divisions.

Section 7: After declaration Collector to take order for acquisition

Whenever any land shall have been so declared to be needed for a public purpose or for a Company, the [Executive District Officer (Revenue)], or some officer authorised by the [Executive District Officer (Revenue)] in this behalf, shall direct the Collector to take order for the acquisition of the land.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 7^th, 2012.

Correction: In an earlier version of the article, the figure 30 was incorrectly written as 30k in the picture caption. The error has been rectified.

Three-member town committees will then proceed against the owners of the buildings, all being used for commercial purposes, that are found to have violated the rules.

Assistant Commissioner (City) Syed Salahuddin told The Express Tribune that the committees would recommend action against these buildings. He said owners of the buildings with minor violations would be directed to make modifications in accordance with the bylaws. “Those with massive violations will be demolished,” he said.

Each committee includes an executive engineer, the town officer (revenue) and the town municipal officer (TMO).

The owners of the buildings with no violations will be directed to submit afresh the building plans for approval from the Buildings Department. They will also be charged a fee for commercial use of the building.

He said plans for these buildings were submitted with the administration between 2005 and 2012. However, he added, the owners had not followed up their applications to get the plans approved. He said the original applications for approval had been cancelled.

The assistant commissioner said the crackdown on buildings without approved plans was initiated following the collapse of a shopping plaza in Satellite Town. He said Commissioner Abdul Jabbar Shaheen was monitoring the campaign.

Of the 2,500 buildings without valid plans, 852 are in Aroop Town, 700 in Khayali Town, 492 in Nandipur Town ad 400 in Qila Deedar Singh Town.

Crackdown on dangerous buildings

A school building on GT Road was declared unfit for use by the city administration and demolished three days ago.

As many as 200 hazardous buildings have so far been identified in the city. AC Salahuddin said notices have been served on the occupants, directing them to vacate the buildings.

Published In The Express Tribune, June 24^th, 2012.

Talking to The Express Tribune, six of the protesters said the land was leased to them by the Irrigation Department in 2008 at Rs5 million per annum. Ansar Javed, Malik Ibrar, Abdul Razzaq, Ghulam Haider, Waqar Ahmed and Ghulam Muhammad said they had distributed 225 acres among themselves and leased the remaining to other farmers who were also present at the protest. “We have paid the lease and worked throughout the year to cultivate the land. The administration cannot just come one day and take the produce away,” they said.

Wildlife Department spokesman Amjad Ali said the farmers had shown a lease agreement they had signed with a head clerk of the Irrigation Department. But, he said, the document appeared dubious. He said the land, declared pond area for Head Marala and Qadirpur barrages built in 1970s, was allotted by the Gujrat district administration to the Wildlife, Agriculture and Forests Departments two years ago. He said the farmers’ plea against the department over their lease was dismissed by a civil court in 2010. He said two appeals the farmers filed first with the district court in 2011 and second with the Lahore High Court in June 2011 were also dismissed.

Amjad Ali said the department had so far taken produce from 423 acres and planned to harvest crop from the remaining 100 acre on Monday. He said the delay was caused by the Army Welfare Trust’s claim over the remaining 100 acres. “They say the land was allotted to them by former Gujranwala commissioner but the district administration does not have record of such an allotment,” he said.

Gujrat district coordination officer Nawazish Ali said wheat from the 100 acre land would be harvested on Monday and deposited with the Revenue Department. He said he had asked the AWT officials to bring evidence to back up their claim over the land. However, he added, no one from the AWT had yet approached him with the evidence so the administration would likely go ahead and harvest the crop on Monday.

The DCO said the protesting farmers were among those paid compensation for their land acquired by the government in 1970 for the construction of two barrages over River Chenab. He said as the land dried up several years ago some of the farmers had relocated and started wheat and fish farming.

The control of the fish farms on 2,200 acres of Qadirpur’s pond area was taken away by the administration but wheat farms had been disputed until last year.

He said a six member committee had been formed to suggest ways to deal with the farmers who were working on the farms to produce fish and wheat. District Wildlife officer Irshad Arshad, one of the six members, said the committee had decided that the farmers had no right to the produce. “The court has decided the matter in our favour. Why should we give anything to the farmers?” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2012.

The taxes were paid after Excise and Taxation Department teams sealed their properties (five-marla and smaller) which were later de-sealed. Another 165 defaulters whose properties were sealed have yet to clear taxes.

Excise and Taxation Officer Afzal Goraya told The Express Tribune that five-marla and smaller residential properties were declared exempt from property tax 10 years ago. However, he said, a number of people had not cleared their tax liabilities for the years before the exemption.

The ETO said Rs100 million was due in property taxes on five-marla and smaller residential properties at that time. Of these, he said, Rs20 million had been cleared in 10 years.

He said notices had been served to the defaulters of the remaining Rs80 million every year but no coercive action was taken against them. But, he added, the Department now intended to recover all unpaid taxes.

Talking to The Express Tribune, several defaulters who cleared their tax on Tuesday after their houses were sealed said they had not felt the need to pay the tax in the past.

“They (the E&T Dept) used to serve warning notices every year but they did not ever seal our house before,” said Abdul Hamid, a resident of Peoples Colony. Hamid paid Rs7,500 to get his three and a half marla house de-sealed on Tuesday.

Haji Kifayatullah and Shaikh Muhammad Azam were among others who paid taxes, Rs3,500 and Rs7,600, respectively, on Tuesday.

Several defaulters who had yet to clear their taxes told The Tribune they would pay once the properties were transferred in their names. Amir Aslam Warraich, a resident of Katcha Aimanabad Road, who needs to pay Rs17,000, said his four and a half marla house was registered in his grandfather’s name. “I will pay once the ownership is transferred in my and my siblings’ names,” he said. He said the seal was not bothering the family because there were two entrances to his house and only one of them had been sealed.

Tahir Mahmood Anjum, a resident of Girjakh, said he had to pay Rs21,000 for the five marla house his family occupied. He also said he would only pay once ownership was transferred from his grandfather’s name to his.

E&T Divisional Director Syed Ashiq Hussain Shah, however, warned that defaulters whose houses had been sealed would not be given more than a week to clear their taxes and get their properties de-sealed. He said those who failed to do so would be prosecuted under the Revenue Act of 1964. “We have set up lock-ups at our tehsil office where defaulters will be held in case of non-payment of these taxes,” he said.

Overall, the E&T Department has collected Rs170 million of the Rs310 million target set for the current year. Recovery during the previous year had been Rs150 million.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 16^th, 2012.