Illegal construction: Court dismisses Chitral DCO’s stay order

Maintains his house is being built too close to the Chitral Airport.

PESHAWAR:

A Chitral court on Tuesday dismissed the stay order obtained by the District Coordination Officer (DCO) for his under-construction house in the limits of the Chitral Airport.

Senior Civil Judge Muhammad Shoed dismissed Chitral DCO Ataullah Wazir’s plea and directed the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to submit weekly progress report on the assessment of structures built in the limits of the airport.

The DCO had earlier obtained a stay order against the demolition of his house, which the CAA claimed was being built too close to the airport’s runway. The CAA accused Wazir of constructing his house 200 feet away from the airport’s runway, when under National Airfield Clearance Police and Federal Land Building Possession Act LIV 1965 no construction is allowed within 750 feet on either of its sides.



The DCO had maintained that he is not the only one who has built structures in the airport’s limits. He said there are “hundreds of others” who reside in the area and termed the issue a “private matter.” He later approached a local court and obtained a stay order against the demolition. But the CAA maintains that he continued to construct the house on the land gifted to him by the Chitral royal family.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 12^th, 2012.