Locals refuse to give up land for Mall Road II
The residents of Danna and Arwari have announced to resort to the last possible step to save their ancestral lands planned to be acquired by the government for the Mall Road-II project.
Members of the Danna Arwari Action Committee including Asad Iqbal Abbasi, Shaukat Ali Abbasi, Major (retd) Amjad, Kamran Abbasi, and others held a protest meeting on Sunday.
They said that the locals of Arwari and Danna have demanded the lawmakers of their area to be prudent and said that the project was a violation of human rights.
Action committee officials said that the historic value of Mall Road should not be disturbed and it should be expanded to give visitors access to the hill station.
The officials said that they possessed the right to live on the land inherited from ancestors and nobody could seize that from them.
They said that all surroundings of the Danna and Arwari were heavily populated and people have been living there for years.
The bureaucracy has imposed a ban on new constructions in the area through a notification. Later at the end, the participants took oath they would not sell their lands to the government at any cost.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 23rd, 2020.