PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has expressed concern about the development of private housing societies on agricultural land in Charsadda and directed the district administration and police to take action against all such schemes there.

A bench consisting of Justice Roohul Amin Khan and Justice Abdul Shakoor directed the administration and police to produce a detailed report about it by Dec 20 and fixed for it the hearing into a petition by lawyer Asif Ali Shah against the mushroom growth of private housing societies in the district on conversion of agricultural land into residential land.

It also directed the administration to act against those involved in the mutation of agricultural land for putting up housing societies.

The petitioner argued that several housing societies had sprung up across the district in the last few years but unfortunately, most of those projects were built on agricultural land causing cultivable land and greenery to shrink.

Asks district admin, police to produce report by Dec 20

He said those housing schemes were established in violation of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government (Private Housing Schemes Management and Regulations) Rules, 2020, which didn’t allow such activity on agricultural land.

The petitioner argued that Rule 5 of those rules provided for the evaluation criteria for an application for a housing scheme.

He added that under that rule, the relevant authority including the local mayor through the planning committee of the tehsil municipal administration should prove that the land in question did not fall under the definition of agricultural land notified or declared as such by the revenue and estate department of the provincial government and did not fall in conflict with the duly approved land use plan of the district.

The petitioner argued that under the law, an agricultural land couldn’t be utilised for commercial and other activities, but in Charsadda, agricultural land faced depletion due to its continuous conversion into private housing societies.

He said that in the past, the court had stopped mutation deeds of transferring agricultural land in the revenue record and had directed the administration to take action against all those involved in such practices, but such societies continued to be established with the administration acting indifferently.

The petitioner said if the practice continued, the district would become food insecure.

He sought the court’s directives for the administration to act against those involved in the illegal practice.

MEETING CALLED: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council has condemned robbery in the Swabi house of senior lawyer Safdar Zeb and convened a general body meeting today (Saturday) to decide future course of action about the growing incidents of violence against legal practitioners.

KP Bar Council vice-chairman Mohammad Ali Jadoon and chairman of its executive committee Mohammad Ilyas Khan demanded of the KP inspector general of police and Swabi district police officer to arrest the culprits saying committing robbery wearing the police’s uniform should be a matter of concern for them.

They said Mr Zeb had been receiving threatening phone calls from extortionists and had informed the police about it, but to no avail.

The council leader also demanded of the federal government to legislate for the lawyers’ protection.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2022