QUETTA: A 70-year-old lawyer, who has been on a hunger strike for several days in the bar room of Balochistan High Court against alleged encroachment upon his property by land mafia in Quetta, has appealed to Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa to provide him justice.

Advocate Mohammad Yaqoob said police were not helping him as construction was being carried out by the land mafia despite court orders. He alleged that more than 100,000 square feet of land in the Nawan Killi area of Quetta had been occupied by influential people, including a man imprisoned in Pishin Jail.

He said: “The Balochistan High Court and two civil courts have cancelled 60,000 transfers, yet construction is being carried out by the land mafia, which is against rules and regulations, as well as officials of the Balochistan Bar Council and the Balochistan Bar Association. They are being pressured not to solve my problems,” he said.

The elderly lawyer demanded that his 90 acres of land should be retrieved from possession of the land mafia, on which the land mafia has started construction. He said his health was being affected by the hunger strike and he lost 12kg of weight. “Despite the deteriorating health situation, no attention is being paid by the administration.”

He claimed that the land was transferred to him in 2010 through a civil court decree, but the land mafia had seized it and started construction on it.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2020