RAWALPINDI: Even five years after a Supreme Court direction, Pakistan Railways (PR) is still struggling to retrieve its 722 acres of land from encroachers across the country.

However, PR officials claimed to have retrieved 3,524 acres worth Rs9.9 billion from the encroachers, including private, government departments, the army and Rangers since 2012.

In a briefing to the National Assembly sub-committee on railways, led by its convener Ramesh Lal, during their visit to the Rawalpindi railway station on Thursday, the officials said PR land measuring 4,246 acres had been encroached by both private and government departments across the country.

They said from the private encroachers in four provinces, the railways retrieved 1,832 acres: Punjab 1,314 acres, KP 108 acres, Sindh 381 acres and Balochistan 29 acres.

“About 1,692 acres of land was given to Rangers in Punjab on lease and the paramilitary force is paying Re1 per square-foot annually for using the land,” Railways Director Property and Land Arshad Salam Khattak said in reply to a question by MNA Hamidul Haq Khalil.

Ramesh Lal asked whether or not the railways had had been getting the amount at the rate of Re1 per square-foot regularly. “It is a token money (from Rangers) for using the non-commercial land for national interest,” replied the railway official.

Ramesh Lal directed the PR officials to speed up work to get back the state land. But PR director technical, Syed Munawar Shah, said mostly the land cases were pending in different courts and due to the stay orders it would be difficult for the railways to get the land vacated from encroachers.

The issue of the PR land occupied by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government in Bannu, Parachinar and Tal was also discussed. “The KP government encroached 240 acres of the railway land for the construction of a judicial complex in Bannu, a university and roads,” the railway officials said.

However, Hamidul Haq Khalil, who belongs to the PTI, said the land was encroached during the tenure of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) government. The official, however, added that besides the MMA the incumbent KP government also used the railway land for different projects.

The committee was informed that the Rawalpindi administration wasted the revenue record of the railway land measuring 82 kanals and 14 marlas at Dhoke Matkal near I.J. Principle Road.

“The revenue department of the city government claimed that the record was burnt in a fire a few years ago. However, the railway had its own revenue record which was verified by the revenue officials from Islamabad and Rawalpindi as the land was located in the two cities.”

The official said the demarcation of the land had been pending due to the delaying tactics adopted by the revenue department of Rawalpindi. However, he said, the CDA had now agreed to carry out the demarcation.

When Ramesh Lal asked about encroachments along the railway station, the PR divisional superintendent, Abdul Malick, said 100 stalls on the land were converted into shops by the leaseholders but the railway authorities were now working to remove the structures from the land.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2016