PESHAWAR, Oct 12: The 400-strong staff of the Airport Security Force at Peshawar International Airport is forced to live in miserable conditions for the past two-and-a-half decades because of the unavailability of proper residential quarters, officials complained here on Sunday.

The ASF personnel, they said, were living in tents as there was no land available near the airport for the construction of residential colonies, adding that the headquarters was well aware of their accommodation problems but was unable to do anything in this regard.

Dependents of the ASF staff complained that while the security force personnel based at Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad had been provided quality accommodation, personnel deployed at Peshawar airport was being ignored.

An ASF man complained about lack of privacy, saying that three to four persons lived cramped into a single tent, braving the heat and humidity as best as they can in the summer, adding that the situation was made even worse in the absence of recreational facilities.

Initially, it was learnt, the number of ASF men deployed at the airport was small with only a few of them guarding the airport and assets of the Civil Aviation Authority. Their number was enhanced after the increase in the number of flights and a hijacking incident in early 1980s.

Instead of acquiring land for proper residential quarters, the ASF authorities had set up a small makeshift tent village in 1976 on an abandoned site on the airport premises, providing living space for 400 ASF men between BPS-5 and BPS-16, an official said.

Even tents were worn out after some 25 years of disrepair and the ASF staff were forced to cover torn patches with plastic sheets to protect themselves from the vagaries of weather.

Sources said that after exhausting the available land at Peshawar airport, which also served a PAF base, the ASF had encroached upon the land of the Flying Club.

Officials said that aviation rules barred the ASF from constructing multi-storied residential blocks inside the airport’s perimeter while another official said that ASF required over 20 kanals of land adjacent to the airport.

“But most of the land adjacent to the airport is occupied by other institutions, including Pakistan Air Force,” he said, adding that funds had been allocated for the construction of residential blocks, but the project could not take off because of unavailability of land.

Officials said that a proposal was under consideration to acquire land near Abdara, close to the airport, but owners of the land were reluctant to make a deal with the agency concerned.