Relocation orders: PHC orders immediate retrieval of Shahi Bagh land

Court rejects Pakistan Football Association’s application to construct Fifa-funded stadium.

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) has ordered immediate retrieval of all land occupied in Shahi Bagh, terming it a national heritage site.

The park has been encroached by various buildings housing government offices, a wedding hall and other sports structures. A PHC division bench, comprising PHC Chief Justice (CJ) Dost Muhammad Khan and Justice Shahjahan Akhunzada, heard an application filed by the Pakistan Football Association (PFA) asking them to retract their decision to remove all encroachments from the park.

PFA’s Counsel Gohar Zaman Khattak said the Shahi Bagh land was currently being used to construct a football stadium, being built in collaboration with the Federation Internationale de Football Association (Fifa).

Khattak said the Rs50 million provided by Fifa had already been spent on the construction of the stadium. Khattak’s request to let them continue to build the complex was rejected by the bench.

The bench was informed by education department officials that Government College Peshawar as well as a school built in 1961 were also on Shahi Bagh’s property.

CJ Khan remained adamant about removing structures from the park. The bench ordered the college and school to be moved to alternate buildings and gave the education department a six-month deadline for the relocation.

In November 2011, a PHC division bench comprising the then PHC CJ Ijaz Afzal and Justice Mazhar Alam Miankhel, had taken suo motu notice of the park’s occupied land after an application was filed to halt the construction of the Fifa-sponsored football stadium.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 4^th, 2012.