Dejected plaintiff ‘wants to leave country’
PHOTO: FILE
A woman said in Lahore High Court on Tuesday that she and her family should be sent back to India if she could not be dispensed justice after a legal battle for 35 years to get her five-marla house vacated from land grabbers in Bahwalnagar.
“I am tired judge Sahib, I have no money for food, no roof and no money for hiring lawyers,” said Syeda Shehnaz while herself presenting her case before Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti.
When asked about the matter, she said land grabbers had occupied her house when she was nine years old and now she was 45.
She implored the court that her case be fixed at the principle seat and decided as early as possible because she feared that the land grabbers may kill her in Bahawalnagar.
The chief justice asked how he could do it without hearing the second party, who was also a woman.
The second party had obtained a stay order regarding the land and the matter was still pending, CJ Bhatti remarked while going through the case file.
"If I cannot be provided justice you can send me back to Indian,” the woman said.
"This is not the case before me, it is your choice where you want to go but I will decide the matter in accordance with the law," the judge remarked.
He issued notice to the respondents for their response.
Advocate Azhar Siddique assured the woman before the court to pursue her case free of cost.
Shehnaz told The Express Tribune that her family had migrated to Pakistan at the time of independence.
She said she had approached the chief settlement commissioner after the 13 marlas of evacuee property had been occupied.
The commissioner cancelled the land deed registered in 1960 as the respondents had not paid the government for acquiring the property.
Subsequently, Shehnaz had been allotted a five-marla piece of land by the commissioner after the payment of dues, but her house had been occupied, she claimed.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 1st, 2022.