High office: Deputy speaker accused of supporting landgrabbers

Lawmakers’ suggestions will be incorporated in plans for next year, says Rehman.

LAHORE:

Opposition members in the provincial assembly on Friday claimed that Deputy Speaker Sardar Sher Ali Khan Gorchani was encroaching on 6,686 acres of Forest Department land.

The session resumed at 10.30am and was prorogued at 5.30pm. Gorchani presided over the session while some opposition members distributed documents in support of their claim.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) MPAs Sardar Ahmed Khan Dareshak and Sardar Ali Raza Khan Dareshak raised the issue during their pre-budget discussion.

Sardar Ahmed said the acting speaker should vacate the Forest Department land.

The speaker said the privileges committee would decide the issue and invited Khan to take his evidence to the committee.

A report distributed by the PTI lawmakers indicted that the Forest Department had sought the speaker’s and the chief minister’s support to retrieve the land.

It said the Rajanpur divisional forest officer had asked chief conservator of forests of the southern zone on February 4 to help the department retrieve its land from the Gorchani chiefs.

It said DFO Agha Hussain Shah had found more than 10,981 acres area under illegal possession of various people.

“I with the support of the district administration succeeded in vacating 4,295 acres area of Rakh Kacha, Kotla Hassan Jamra, Rakh Murghai, Rakh Thul Maingraj and Rakh Bait Bagh Shah. The constructed houses in the forest area were also demolished,” Agha Hussain Shah says in the letter.

The DFO said Deputy Speaker Sardar Sher Ali Khan Gorchani and his father Sardar Pervez Khan Gorchani had encroached on forest land in Thul, Maingraj, Bait Bagh Shah, Kotla Shair Muhammad and Rakh Wah.

He said field staff had tried to stop cultivation on the land but failed.

The DFO said he had tried to convince the Gorchanis to withdraw their support for the encroachers but in vain.

Reoccupation

The report states that out of 4,295 acres retrieved land 1,300 acres land had been re-occupied by Gorchanis. Out of the 2,889 acres retrieved land from Thul Mangraj and Bait Bagh Shah, 1,300 acres was re-occupied.

As much as 6,686 acres remained in their control, it said.

The chief conservator had forwarded the report to the forest secretary last month and requested him to take up the matter with Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

Sardar Ali Raza told The Express Tribune in the assembly cafeteria that no action had been taken on the chief conservative’s request.

Sardar Ali Raza said that the Federal Board of Revenue should check the deputy speaker’s assets.

Pre-budget discussion

Minister of Finance Mian Mujtaba Shujur Rehman concluded the pre-budget discussion with an assurance that the government would incorporate lawmakers’ suggestions in its plans for next year.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 22^nd, 2014.