Filtration plant row disrupts court work

The dispute over the installation of a filtration plant at the Bar Room in Abbottabad intensified on Friday, with no apparent progress towards either a legal or amicable settlement.

A staff strike linked to the controversy also disrupted routine public affairs, causing difficulties for thousands of people visiting the courts.

The dispute centres on competing claims over the ownership and administrative control of the court premises. The district administration maintains that the entire court complex is owned by the provincial government and is administratively supervised by the Abbottabad Deputy Commissioner.

The other side, however, claims that the premises belong to the judiciary and fall under the administrative control of the District and Sessions Judge.

Abbottabad Assistant Commissioner Afrasiyab Hindal has termed the installation of the filtration plant illegal. Available construction records, including those relating to the reconstruction of buildings damaged in the 2005 earthquake, indicate that the structure housing the filtration plant was subsequently established behind the AC court and office.

Questions have also been raised over how the structure was constructed within the court premises despite the presence of hundreds of government employees and dozens of security personnel responsible for overseeing the property.

While the manner in which the district administration moved to demolish the structure remains open to debate, the dispute over ownership and permission for its construction remains unresolved.

No documentary evidence has so far emerged publicly to show that permission was obtained from the authority responsible for the property before the filtration plant was constructed.

Observers say protests, regardless of their stated purpose, cannot by themselves establish ownership rights over government or institutional property.