Justice denied: Man robbed of land and asked to apologise

Elderly Nilore native pleads housing society, police to return his land.

ISLAMABAD:

A poor old man trying to reclaim his land from the illegal possession of a housing society was asked to apologise to the influential owner if he wants his request to be considered.

Police have already shown him the door by refusing to register his complaint. Instead, they advised the 75-year-old Abdul Hameed to apologise to the real estate tycoons encroaching upon his land.

Hameed, already struggling to make ends meet, said, “My family has been displaced from the land in Thanda Pani where I spent all of my life, as they took my property.

“They grabbed all of my land at a throwaway price and levelled it for developing a housing scheme on it,” he told The Express Tribune.

“The case of another six kanals is already pending with a court, but the remaining land has also been occupied by them,” Hameed said in his complaint to the Nilore Police. However, the police refused to register an FIR against the housing society.

The investigating officer, when approached, said, “We cannot register an FIR without the approval from the high command.” He said that an FIR would be registered only after the approval from the superintendent of police.

In reply to a question, he conceded that mediatory efforts were also being made to resolve the issue.

Hameed said that the police ‘advised’ him to tender apology to the land developer and seek forgiveness from him.

He also sought help from the Islamabad administration but to no avail. A top official in the ICT administration told The Express Tribune that they were helpless before influential land developers who enjoyed good relations with politicians and military officials.

Royal City, the housing society, has control of seven kanals of Hameed’s land in Nilore. Owned by the publisher of an Urdu daily, land for the society was “acquired” by the uncle of Mustafa Khokar, adviser to the Prime Minister on human rights, according to the police official familiar with the case.

Responding to a question, Hameed said that he wants to avoid engaging a lawyer due to his limited means. “As a last resort, I will borrow some money to hire a lawyer to contest my case in the courts,” Hameed said, breaking down into tears.

A military official also confirmed that, despite their concern, extensive infrastructure development is underway in the sensitive zone near Nilore factory.

The management of the housing society, however, claims that they have 100% documented clearance for all plots. However, no official at the society’s site office gave their version when contacted.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th, 2012.