Military, PAF on inquiry list: Body set up to probe ‘land occupation’ in Quetta

Senators express concern over occupying land without paying money to owners

ISLAMABAD: In an unprecedented move on Monday, a Senate panel constituted a sub-committee to look into the matter of alleged illegal occupation of lands in Quetta by military and Pakistan Air Force (PAF) personnel under the garb of welfare and development projects and submit a report within 60 days.

“Nobody has the right to occupy anybody’s land without the consent of its owner and if there is any such need to do so then the actual heir of the land should be taken into confidence with full payment of the land’s price,” senators were of the unanimous view during a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Defence at Pakistan Institute of Parliamentary Studies with Senator Mushahid Hussain in the chair.

The sub-committee -- comprising Senator Lt Gen (retd) Abdul Qayyum as its convener and senators Hidayatullah and Farhatullah Babar as its members -- will hold meetings with officials of PAF, Ministry of Defense, provincial government and the owners of the lands in Quetta to prepare a report.



The panel discussed the adjournment motion submitted by three senators that an ‘alarming rise in military land in Quetta was causing disharmony among the people’.

Senators, including the two who had moved the adjournment motion - senators Muhammad Usman Kakar and Sardar Muhammad Khan, condemned the occupation of land without payment to the local tribes.

“Welfare projects are always carried out, but not by encroaching upon someone’s land without their consent,” Senator Kakar said.



Senator Khan inquired, “When the possessions of those lands were accepted by English rulers, then how come the current security forces encroached upon it without giving the locals their due rights?”

He asked the representatives of the PAF and the military, “How come lands worth billions of rupees had been included by them in their territory without the consent or payment to local tribes?”

He said that a recent standoff was averted when security forces at PAF Base Samungli came to ‘grab’ the land near their base and locals refused to give it.



“Give people money if you want to possess their land,” said Khan.

Senator Abdul Qayyum also inquired as to why the welfare project was specifically being built on the land where locals were unwilling to hand it over? “Build it somewhere else if they are unhappy with it,” he said.

Senator Tahir Mashhadi said, “If the project is not for the security forces and their families, then it could be established anywhere, but if the people do not want it then it cannot be imposed.”



Meanwhile, two victims from Quetta also shared their ordeal as to how their lands were confiscated and construction was under way without paying a single penny to them.

One of the victims Azam Zada said, “Even an FIR had been registered against those who ‘resisted’ in the past.”

Earlier, briefing the Senate committee, Air Commodore Abdul Moeed said that PAF was using land in Samungli as airbase, in Nohisar as Regi Airfield and in Maslaikh as a firing range. He said that these three lands were acquired in 1942, 1978 and 2008, respectively and all due procedure was followed and no land was being grabbed anywhere else.



“PAF intends to set up a city named Yunusabad in Quetta named after a PAF captain Yunus on the pattern of city Rashidabad set up by the PAF in Sindh,” he added.

He said that the area and the facilities therein would be primarily aimed for the underprivileged and no benefit would be given to those related to the PAF.

Senator Azam Musakhel referred to the three resolutions of the Balochistan Assembly which had in 1999, 2002 and 2014, respectively condemned this forced occupation.