Property dispute: DHA accused of land grabbing in Peshawar

Political parties appealed to COAS General Raheel Sharif to have land returned to rightful owners

PESHAWAR: Pakhtunkhwa Ulasi Tehreek (PUT) and Khidmatgar Qaumi Jirga appealed to Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif to have their agricultural land in Shahi Bala and Spairsang areas returned to them. These pieces of lands were made a part of Defence Housing Authority (DHA) in Peshawar.

While addressing a seminar at Peshawar Press Club on Thursday, member of PUT Haji Gul Bacha said, “We are not ready to sell our land to DHA. However, the project authorities are trying to coerce us into selling it,” he said.

Haji Badaruz Zaman, a PUT member, said DHA has installed signboards at various places in Spairsang and Shahi Bala areas and occupied the land illegally.

PUT Chairman Said Alam Mehsud presented a resolution, saying the construction on agricultural land is illegal and against the law. “Additionally,” he said, “DHA has occupied disputed land and is doing so illegal.”

Mehsud accused DHA of forging ownership documents and presenting it as its own. “We will be forced to become refugees or will be displaced if our land is taken away by DHA,” Mehsud added.

The organisations demanded human rights activists support them against, what they termed, the “land mafia”. “This is a conspiracy against the Pukhtun nation,” Mehsud added.