PESHAWAR: The defence ministry on Thursday denied the demolition of dozens of markets in Miramshah town of North Waziristan Agency by the security forces and requested the Peshawar High Court to dismiss a joint petition filed by 78 local tribesmen to claim the ownership of the market lands.

In a reply filed with the Peshawar High Court to the petition, the ministry questioned the claim of the petitioners to the lands insisting they’d not produced any evidence.

The petitioners have challenged the ongoing construction of markets in Miramshah claiming the security forces had been putting up new bazaars on their land after pulling down theirs.

These reply as submitted to a bench consisting of Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Ikramullah Khan by deputy attorney general Manzoor Khalil.

The bench issued directives to the State and Frontier Region (Safron) secretary and North Waziristan’s political agent to file comments on the petition.

Challenges tribesmen’s claim to market lands saying they haven’t produced any evidence

The hearing was later adjourned until date in office.

Abdul Lateef Afridi, lawyer for the petitioners, said after going through the defence ministry’s reply, he would file a rejoinder.

The petitioners have claimed after they left Miramshah town before the launch of Zarb-i-Azb military operation against militants, their properties, including markets, were demolished and valuables were taken away.

They requested the court to declare that the lands of Miramshah Bazaar, which had been totally demolished, belonged to them and other tribesmen and that the government and security forces had no authority or power to build new markets on them.

The petitioners sought the court’s orders for the government and security forces against constructing or changing the nature of Miramshah Bazaar lands owned by them and other tribesmen.

The defence ministry denied all those claims and also questioned the maintainability of the petition.

In the reply to the petition, the defence ministry mentioned that the high court didn’t have the jurisdiction to entertain and adjudicate on the case pertaining to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in line with the law laid down by the high court’s larger bench.

It added that the relevant forum was available to the petitioners under the Frontier Crimes Regulation for the redressal of their grievances.

The ministry said the petition involved seriously disputed and controversial issues of facts, which could not be resolved through the instant writ petition under Article 199 of the Constitution.

It said the records showed almost 450 kanals of state land existed in the area of nearly 1,700 kanals.

The ministry added that four different categories of claimants, including the state of Pakistan, alleged private owners, alleged lessee and alleged tenants existed, and that the entitlement was to be determined by the relevant political authorities.

It claimed neither the security forces demolished 8,000 shops nor did they take away valuable items from there.

“The area falls within the operational limits of Zarb-i-Azb, where severe encounters were made causing damage to various properties,” it said.

In the reply, the ministry said since the buildings and markets in Bazaar Area of North Waziristan Agency were in a deplorable condition being war ridden, the government of Pakistan in the wake of rehabilitation efforts had begun reconstruction activities, including reconstruction of the shops and buildings, in a much better position than what existed before so that the same could be handed over to their rightful owners and claimants.

It said the damaged markets were being reconstructed for handover to original and lawful owners as determined by the relevant authorities.

The petitioners claim the Miramshah Bazaar was built on the lands of two sub-tribes of Dawar tribe, including Darpakhel and Miram Shah Kalay, and a sub-tribe of Wazir tribe, Borakhel.

They said all 8,000 shops of Miramshah Bazaar belonged to the three sub-tribes and that they owned 68 markets in Miramshah Bazaar with each market consisting of dozens of shops.

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2017