Encroachment drive: Galiyat to Murree road widened to 45ft

PHC bench directs lower courts to produce all records of stay orders taken by influential builders.

PESHAWAR: The Galiyat Development Authority (GDA) Director General Syed Nazar Shah told the Peshawar High Court on Monday that court orders to clear Galiyat of encroachments are being fully complied with. So far the authority has widened Galiyat-Murree Road from eight to 45 feet after clearing it of encroachments.

This was said during a hearing on encroachment and land grabbing in Galiyat. A two-member bench of Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Musarrat Hilali was briefed regarding the on-going operation in the area ordered by the court.



The director general said the clean-up operation helped retrieve 25 kanals of land from land grabbers and remove encroachments from 107 kanals. Shah said the detailed report which the court had ordered the GDA to prepare has been completed.

“There are many influential people, including politicians and police officials, among those who have illegally occupied residential and commercial land in the area,” said Shah quoting the report. “This was the first phase of the operation where land was retrieved.”

Shah also told the court in the second phase of the operation, action would be taken against those who have constructed buildings in violation of building laws.

Influential people have taken stay orders from the local courts, he added. The division bench then directed the lower courts to produce all records relevant to the matter.

The court had sought a detailed report on September 15 regarding action taken by the GDA against encroachments in Galiyat highlighted in a NAB investigation report.

The PHC was informed by GDA on Monday that they have started taking action against illegally-constructed buildings and have so far cleared around 65 kilometres of the road by removing buildings constructed against the GDA Act.

Director General Shah said the district administration and local police are hardly helping in this regard. The authority has demolished buildings, including markets, hotels, shops and houses.

The next date of the hearing has been fixed for October 14.

Instructions by court

On November 7, 2013 former chief justice Dost Muhammad Khan banned the allotment of plots to any housing society without the permission of the court after a report presented by NAB revealed a number of plots were illegally allotted.

The report revealed there was no ‘master plan’ for the construction of buildings in the area and most of the houses have violated the building and construction laws. It further said these houses were acquired by retired police and army officials, ministers, senators and other influential people.

The two-member division bench had then issued the order (banning allotment of housing schemes) with the direction to the chief minister to form a cabinet committee comprising ministers for forest, environment, irrigation, public health, communication and works, local government officials and director general of Galiyat Development Authority.

The NAB report says that there are 42 buildings that were constructed without following the required law and master plan.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 23^rd, 2014.