In compliance to a Supreme Court order, the officials have started collecting data on educational institutes’ land occupied by influential people and land grabbers, sources in the district education department told The Express Tribune on Tuesday.
The Rawalpindi’s executive district officer (EDO), education, Qazi Zahoorul Haq has written letters to the heads of all government schools in the district to provide complete details on lands encroached upon or under illegal occupation.
A senior teacher at a higher secondary school requesting anonymity informed The Express Tribune that he was intimated by the EDO office two weeks ago to furnish the details about encroached lands.
The information is being collected to resolve land disputes and retrieve encroached lands, the sources said requesting anonymity.
District Coordination Officer (DCO) Saqib Zafar, however, said the district and revenue department officials had separately compiled their data and sent to Lahore.
In total, 27 cases of encroachment of school land were reported in the district, while 21 cases involving land disputes are pending in civil courts, Zafar said.
In four other cases, the issues had been resolved through negotiations and the involvement of the revenue department, whereas two cases — one in Murree and the other in Gujar Khan — are under the microscope and efforts were being made to resolve the issue, the DCO added.
Zafar said the administration had started pursuing all pending cases to ensure early disposal.
Last year, the apex court took suo motu notice on a news report on a land grabbing and had asked for the complete details on such cases pending in courts and land disputes involving schools in the province.
Last month, students of Muslim Higher Secondary School for Boys, Saidpur Road protested against an attempt by some influential people to encroach on their school land.
The school administration was cleaning the school grounds when some area residents stopped them claiming that the school administration had encroached on the street, when it was actually the other way around.
The other cases of encroachment of land include Islamia schools for Boys Liaqat Bagh, Islamia School College Road, Islamia School, Circular Road, three schools at Khayyaban-i-Sir Syed, Mission High School, Ziaul Uloom and Shimla Islamia Schools at Raja Bazaar, Government High School Ghulshanabad and a land dispute at the education office in Bagh Sardaran.
The EDO could not be reached for comment.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 19th, 2012.
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