BAHAWALNAGAR: Besides ignoring three court orders for taking action against land grabbers, the Minchinabad tehsil administration has yet to launch an operation against the people encroaching the Irrigation Department land despite the orders of the deputy commissioner (DC) to retrieve the land by Nov 28.

A report issued by the DC on Oct 28 revealed that people had established illegal shops at Ford Wah Canal on Head Sulemanki link road at McLeod Ganj.

The report said the last anti-encroachment drive failed to retrieve the land due to the unavailability of enough police force.

Petitioner Muhammad Ramzan told Dawn that he first approached DC Shoaib Judoon in December 2020 after the assistant commissioner (AC) did not get vacated the land despite the orders of Lahore High Court, Bahawalpur Bench, issued on Nov 14, 2020.

He said the DC office started the operation on Feb 28 after it received a contempt of court notice on Jan 20. The operation, however, lasted a few hours due to unknown reasons and the officials submitted a report of the completion of the operation to the court.

He said afterwards, the administration remained quiet for months until the court served a show-cause notice to former DC Shafqatullah Mushtaq in May.

He said that on May 20, the officials after demolishing a few encroachments again left the operation incomplete and submitted a report of retrieving the state land to the high court to save their skin.

He said the administration broke their silence after receiving another court direction to vacate the state land on Sept 17. He said this time, DC retired Capt Muhammad Waseem after hearing parties regarding the matter and checking the revenue record, issued instructions to the Minchinabad AC on Oct 28 to get the land vacated within 30 days.

He said the tehsil administration neither obeyed the court orders nor followed DC’s instruction as usual.

Citizens demanded higher-ups to take strict action against the land mafia.

When contacted for version on Nov 30, newly-appointed AC Ahmad Javed Cheema said it was the responsibility of his predecessor, who was transferred a few days ago, to implement the DC order. He, however, vowed to take action against the land grabbers at his earliest convenience.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2021