SAHIWAL: The Supreme Court will take up on Monday a review petition in a land dispute case of Pakpattan decided by the apex court back in 2015.

Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Saqib Nisar, during his visit to the Baba Farid shrine on Saturday, had promised justice in the case when dozens of the affected people raised slogans to get his attention towards their plight. The demo at Darbar Chowk in Pakpattan was organised by the Citizen’s Rights and Welfare Organization which claims working for 20,000 households in public interest and seeks ownership rights of the land they purchased from the Dewans, the caretakers of the shrine, during the last 70 years.

The Dewans claim that they had been declared caretakers of 14,500 canal land of the the Baba Farid shrine but the Auqaf department says the shrine caretakers had no right to sell the land as it was not their jurisdiction to sell ownership rights of the land associated with the shrine since centuries. The Dewans filed a review petition with the Supreme Court against the Auqaf Department for defense of their right to sell the land.

BACKGROUND: After Partition, Dewan Ghulam Qutab and his family used to be the `owners’ of the shrine’s land as per the revenue record from 1947 to 1958.

The family sold the land to different people until Jan 1, 1970, when the Punjab government notified the Auqaf Department as the rightful owner of the land and Dewans the custodian of the shrine. When Dewans moved the court, the Lahore High Court decided against them.

In 1986, the government withdrew its 1970 notification and the Dewans reciprocated by withdrawing their appeal from the Lahore High Court against the decision.

With this, the Dewans resumed their land selling business and the revenue department issued ownership rights (fard) to all buyers.

In the meantime, a 1981 case regarding 17 marlas land filed in a civil court reached the Supreme Court by 2015. The apex court chief justice took suo moto of the land deals of the shrine and summoned officials of the revenue and auqaf departments and the Dewans.

After some hearings, the Supreme Court declared notification of Aug 28, 1986, illegal and nullified all land deals done since then. The decision reportedly affected 100,000 residents of different localities.

The Dewans filed a review petition with the Supreme Court against its 2015 decision which remained pending since than.

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2018