LOWER DIR: Former Dir state employees staged a rally in Samarbagh on Sunday against the administration for allegedly evicting them from the lands in their possession.

Hundreds of people from different areas of Jandol participated in the protest. Speaking on the occasion representatives of former state employees Malik abdul Sattar Khan, Sarbiland Khan, Advocate Mohammad Riaz and others alleged that the administration recently razed several houses and shops owned by the former state employees in Balambat and Jandol.

They said the lands were allotted to their ancestors for serving as security officials in the former Dir state that was merged into Pakistan in 1960. They said that Federal Land Commission in 1974 declared them the owners of those lands.

They said that administration was pressuring them to vacate the lands. They threatened to stage a sit-in outside the office of deputy commissioner office if their eviction was not stopped.

However, Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Zubair Khan Niazi, when contacted, said that the administration had nothing to do with the lands owned by the former Dir state employees.

He said that the apex court directed the district administration to vacate the state lands from the grabbers in Balambat and its surroundings.

REFERENCE: Speakers at a condolence reference paid rich tributes to former provincial minister Bakht Baidar Khan and said that the vacuum created by his death would not be filled soon.

PPP provincial president Najmuddin Khan, former provincial president Humayun Khan, former senator Ahmed Hasan Khan, ANP central leader Hussain Shah Yousafzai, former provincial minister Muzaffar Said, former state minister Malik Azmat Khan and others spoke on the occasion.

They said that Bakht Baidar Khan served people for more than 50 years. They said the party leadership would never forget the deceased and his party.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2022