19 June 2004	Saturday	30 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

PESHAWAR, June 18: The Peshawar High Court on Friday upheld three identical writ petitions relating to the payment of royalty on forest sales to the local right-holders in Kalam and Dir- Kohistan areas.

The two member bench of the high court, comprising Justice Shahjehan Khan Yousafzai and Justice Qazi Ahsanullah Qureshi, directed the provincial government to pay 60 per cent royalty to the right-holders from the forest sales.

The petitioners had stated that their contracts with the FDC had lapsed in 1983 and after that, instead of payment of proceeds on net sales of timber harvested by the FDC or its contractors, they had been offered royalty on pre-fixed timber rates.

The petitions, filed by Mutabar Khan, Mamraiz Khan and Gujar Khan, representing the local right-holders, had been pending in the high court for more than eight years.

The bench had reserved its judgment on April 16 after completion of arguments by all the parties concerned, including the petitioner, Forest Development Corporation, forest contractors and the provincial government.

Arguments were advanced by the petitioners' counsel Qazi Muhammad Anwer and Ameen Khattak, the Forest Development Corporation's counsel M. Sardar Khan and the additional advocate- general, Muhammad Saeed.

Earlier, in April 1996 a two-member bench of the high court, headed by Justice J.D. Akberjee, had disposed of the petitions, directing the government to act in accordance with the Forest Act of 1927 and the NWFP Management of Protected Forests Rules, 1975 and distribute the sale proceeds among the local people in accordance with the procedure provided in the Act and Rules framed thereunder.

However, the FDC had filed appeals before the Supreme Court, stating that the provisions of Order 1 Rule 8 of the Civil Procedure Code were not followed strictly as the CPC was applicable to the proceedings in the constitutional jurisdiction by the high court.

The Supreme Court had remanded the cases back to the high court with the direction to follow the provision of Order 1 Rule 8 of the CPC and to publish advertisement for informing the concerned stake-holders about the cases.

The SC had remanded the cases in 1996 with the direction to decide the petitions within six months but the cases had been pending far longer because of one reason or the other. Petitioners had argued that the government had not discharged its legal and moral obligations under the contracts and the law.

They requested the bench to issue appropriate directions to the government for implementing the agreements regarding payment of royalty at the rate of 60 percent to the local right-holders from the sale proceeds of the forests exploited by the government or any other agency, corporation or persons of the forest range in Dir-Kohistan and Kalam areas.

Advocate Qazi Anwer had contended that the royalty to the petitioners and other forest right-holders of the areas should be paid the royalty from the sale proceeds of the forests and not on the basis of pre-fix rates. He added that poor people were deprived of their due right for the last many years.