Lawyers, revenue workers protest over disputed land

Tariq Mehmood said the lawyers have not occupied the land illegally.


Tariq Ismaeel January 29, 2015
Lawyers (left) march to Kutchery Chowk as revenue workers (right) protest the attack on their office on Thursday. PHOTO: EXPRESS

DERA GHAZI KHAN:


Lawyers continued to protest against the district government over an anti-encroachment drive on what they claim was their land as Multan bench of Lahore High Court stayed the drive on Thursday and summoned the Dera Ghazi Khan district coordination officer on February 23.


Meanwhile, nearly 100 members of the Association of Board of Revenue Workers protested against the attack on the office of the Cantt assistant commissioner on Wednesday by going on a strike.

Scores of lawyers led by district bar president Salim Raza Kakar marched from Aiwan-i-Adal and staged a protest demonstration at Kutchery Chowk.

They tore down posters hung at the gate of a TMA office on anti-encroachment efforts. They later set them on fire and chanted slogans against the district government, accusing them of being the “real land mafia.”

Talking to participants of the protest, Kakar said the lawyers would continue to protest until the assistant commissioner was transferred. He said AC Tariq Mehmood had led an encroachment drive on land allotted for a lawyers’ colony.

He said lawyers had not occupied the land illegally.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Punjab Bar Council member Arif Khan Gurmani said the Lahore High Court had indefinitely stayed the encroachment drive and summoned the DCO on February 23.

Association of Board of Revenue Workers announced an indefinite strike in protest against the lawyers who had attacked their offices on Wednesday. Scores of workers also staged a protest demonstration in front of their office.

Talking to the participants, Association president Rana Ahmed Sajid said Revenue Department workers had been doing their duty when they were attacked. He said earlier on Tuesday, some Revenue Department teams had removed encroachments in Kotla on government’s orders. He condemned those involved in ransacking their offices. A meeting was also held between the DCO and a delegation of lawyers over an FIR registered against the bar president and 200 other lawyers for attacking the AC’s office.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 30th, 2015.

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