Fight for land: Tussle between Pindi authorities, realtor continues

Pindi commissioner constitutes 4 teams to demarcate land, as the private housing society challenges the move.

RAWALPINDI:

Rawalpindi commissioner recently constituted four teams to demarcate land for forests in Loi Bher and Takht Pari, to determine who is an encroacher and who isn’t.

Bahria Town, a private housing society, responded by challenging the demarcation in court. The authority claimed that the limits of land of forest department had already been defined and the recent orders for fresh demarcation were aimed at victimising the owner and the staff of the private housing society.

Haji Amjad, a director of the housing society, moved the Lahore High Court (LHC) Rawalpindi bench in a bid to stop the revenue authorities from carrying out the demarcation, terming it “an illegal act with malafide intentions”.

On June 30, during the first hearing of the case, Justice Chaudhry Muhamamd Tariq of the LHC rejected Bahria Town’s claims and set aside its petition.

Following this, the Rawalpindi commissioner formed four teams supervised by chief conservator forests Rawalpindi on June 23 to complete the demarcation of the forest land and submit the final report by July 20, according to documents available with The Express Tribune.

Rawalpindi settlement officer issued a notification on June 25 intimating area residents, revenue officials and the chief executive of Bahria Town that the demarcation will be carried out in Loi Bher and Takht Pari.

According to the documents, the revenue authorities also want to determine whether a public road has also been encroached upon besides forest department’s land.

Bahria Town strikes back

After receiving the intimation, director land of the private housing society approached the court, saying they had settled the issue of ownership and possession of land in Takht Pari and the matter of Loi Bher was stilling pending with the concerned civil court.

In their petition, the private housing society had maintained that they owned more than 100,000 kanals in Rawalpindi in different revenue states and had developed a number of phases of the housing society.

Citing these facts as a proof of their “fair and undisputed business” in the area, the petitioner company had said that the dispute between Bahria Town and the forest department first started in 2003.

Prolonged litigations, repeated demarcations and involvement of higher judiciary bore little fruit; finally a meeting between the chief executive of the housing society and the then chief minister of Punjab in 2007 paved the way for settlement, the petition said.

Under the compromise the company said they handed over 405 kanals of land to Forest Department under a mutation in Takht Pati on October 20, 2007. After that the forest department erected cemented pillars on its boundaries and the housing society constructed a wall to mark its land.

The petitioner added that the issue of Loi Bher is pending with civil courts and the revenue authorities cannot carry out fresh demarcation.

“If the issue of forest land is seen in the backdrop of the ongoing tussle between Bahria Town and the Punjab government over the issue of getting computerised national identity cards for the employees of the housing society it can be another episode in the drama,” said a Bahria Town official.

Earlier Rawalpindi police had registered criminal cases against the chief executive and the staff of Bahria Town and had allegedly stopped issuing transfer orders pertaining to the ownership of land of the housing society.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 13^th, 2011.