LAHORE: The district administration on Monday retrieved seven kanal 17 marla land of a government school in Shahdara Town after 45 years in an operation against land grabbing.

The Government MPE High School Shahdara Town administration had been pursuing the case in different courts for the last 45 years or so.

The land grabbers had established a cotton factory on the land which was allotted to school and was not being vacated due to litigation. The land earlier belonged to the people who migrated to India after Partition.

On Monday, a district administration team, led by city assistant commissioner Adnan Rasheed, launched a crackdown in Shahdara Town and got the land retrieved. The land was handed over to the Government MPE High School, Shahdara Town.

The principal of the school, Akhlaq Ahmed, thanked the district administration for retrieving the land after a long time.

He said the district administration dismantled the illegal factory.

Adnan Rasheed told Dawn that the land belonged to families who migrated to India after Partition.

He said the land was later taken over by locals through forged documents and had established a cotton factory on it.

He said the school administration and the locals had filed cases and some days ago the settlement commissioner termed the allotment of those having possession of the land illegal and the land was transferred to the school education department (SED).

He said the SED had transferred the land to Government MPE High School.

Mr Rasheed further said the factory was later turned into a residential building where a number of labourers were residing.

Published in Dawn,May 24th, 2022