Land for new Islamabad airport: Fateh Jang locals protest, decry ‘low prices’ offered

Road linking to Motorway blocked for over three hours

RAWALPINDI: In what could prove to be a cause for concern, hundreds of villagers living around the under-construction New Islamabad Airport in Fateh Jang staged a protest on Monday over the federal government’s decision to acquire more land for the airport.

Protesters gathered at Katarian Chowk on the road linking the Motorway with the new airport and blocked the road for over three hours.

The landowners said that the government should either not acquire more land in the area or pay market rates for their lands.



The government plans to purchase additional land in the area to build a third runway at the airport. In this regard, a Senate committee had last week told the Civil Aviation Division to enforce section-IV of the Punjab Land Acquisition Act to acquire the land.

The areas which would be affected by the planned land acquisition include villages in the union councils of Bajnial, Jangle, Kanal, Dhoke Mera Shah, Niawala, Dulatpur, Pind Jandal, Chak Fatooh, Kholy, Kak Chaudhry, Dhoke Neeli, Dhoke Amanat, Katarian, Dhoke Dhalo, Dhoke Ammoon Wali, Mian Rasheeda, Bajnial, Pind Ranjah, and other areas.

Prominent among those leading the protest were Sardar Awais Ali, Sardar Mushtaq and Raja Ayub.

The protesters noted that it was strange that the government wanted to acquire land for the project for the fourth time, but it was beyond their understanding why the government wanted to acquire more land.

They pointed out that the CAA had already built outer the boundary walls of the facility.

The protesters further complained that the government had promised to provide jobs to those whose land would be acquired to build the new airport, but the promise had yet to be fulfilled.

Asked about why they were reluctant to sell their land to the government, the protesters complained that the government had offered a nominal price for the land far below market prices.

So low were the prices offered that the affected families would not be able to purchase any land or houses in surrounding areas.

According to the protestors, the government had first acquired land for the airport in 1987, and then after few years paid very low prices for it. Then in 2005 and 2006, the CAA purchased further land at market prices through private brokers. They said that the government needed to pay market prices for the land, even if it is acquired under section-IV.



UC Jangle’s former nazim and president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Youth Wing in Attock Raja Abid Mahmood told The Express Tribune that locals were concerned about the government’s plan to acquire further land in the area.

He along with UC Jangle’s current chairman, Haji Muhammad Azam, said that all locals want is for the government to pay them market prices for their ancestral lands.

The protesters ended their demonstration after several PML-N leaders including MPA Chaudhry Sher Ali, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar’s brother-in-law Malik Asif and assistant commissioners of Fateh Jang and Rawalpindi assured them that their concerns would be conveyed to the government.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7^th, 2017.