May 29, 2007	Tuesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 12, 1428

MUZAFFARABAD, May 28: The AJK High Court on Monday ordered the maintenance of status quo in a petition filed against the government’s decision to acquire land for building satellite towns for earthquake survivors near Muzaffarabad.

The petition had been filed by Tanweer Hussain Khan, Syed Ejaz Hussain Shah and Azmat Khan Mughal under section 44 of AJK’s interim constitution. The AJK government’s works and housing secretary, local Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority, Board of Revenue and Development Authority Muzaffarabad, collector land acquisition district Muzaffarabad and other relevant official agencies were named respondents in the petitions.

After hearing preliminary arguments of the petitioners’ counsel Ishfaque Hussain Kiani, the single member bench comprising Mr Justice Mohammad Younas Tahir asked the respondents to file their comments before or on the date of next hearing on June 1.

The collector land acquisition is reported to have issued a notification under section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1984, to acquire more than 4000 kanals of land in the villages of Thotha Sarai, Palhotar, Parak, Langarpura, Shalabagh and Khunbandi in Jhelum valley for the establishment of four satellite towns. However, the notification was not published in the official gazette.

Mr Kiani prayed before the court that the areas identified by the respondents for the proposed project were situated on an active fault line, known as the Himalayan Frontal Thrust, while the National Engineering Services of Pakistan had forbidden dense housing as well as important infrastructures such as educational institutions and healthcare centres within a distance of 250 metres on each side of the line.

He said the Parak and Palhotar villages were unsafe for human habitation due to the soil erosion caused by river Jhelum.

He added that the areas under consideration were the best irrigated agricultural lands and their utilisation for residential purposes would be against the interests of economy of the area as well as the “Green Kashmir” slogan of the current government.

It is ironic that the government is acquiring agricultural land when land with much less value situated close to the main road is available, he said.

The counsel said the proposed acquisition was unlawful because the respondents had neither calculated the actual land requirements for the rehabilitation of quake survivors nor had any such project been approved.