PESHAWAR: Hundreds of allottees of plots in the Regi Model Town here on Saturday moved the Peshawar High Court against the provincial government and Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) over a delay of around three decades in the grant of plot possession.

A total of 550 allottees including Mohammad Qaim Khan, Mohammad Iqbal and others, who claim to be representing 17,000 families, filed a joint petition requesting the court to declare the “denial” of the possession of plots in zones I, II and V of the Regi Model Town to the allottees illegal and with ulterior motives.

They prayed the court to declare the lingering land dispute between the Kukikhel Afridi tribe and the government “illegal” and non-compliance with the terms agreed upon by elders of the tribe and the government on Feb 16, 1991.

The petitioners requested the court to direct the respondents, including the provincial government and the PDA, to hand over the possession of plots in three zones to the allottees awaiting it for decades despite making due payments on time.

Complain possession of Regi Town plots not granted despite payments

They also sought the directives of the court for the government to stop members of the Kukikhel tribe from constructing houses in the RMT and settle the Maffey Griffith Line Peshawar to allow them to live peacefully and construct houses on the plots allotted to them.

The petition is filed through lawyer Saifullah Muhib Kakakhel.

Respondents in the petition included KP government through its chief secretary, secretary local government, PDA director-general, KP Inspector General of Police, senior member board of revenue, commissioner of Peshawar division, deputy commissioners of Peshawar and Khyber districts, and additional director-general for the RMT.

The petitioners said that they were allottees of plots in the RMT, which was a project of the PDA, but possession of those plots had not been given to them despite allotment in 1993.

They added that plots in zones III and IV were developed and houses were constructed on them.

The petitioners said that the dates of allotment of plots in all zones was the same but due to dispute of the Maffey Grift Line between the Kukikhel tribe and the government over the ownership of land, the allottees of plots in three zones still awaited due rights.

The petitioners said that some of them had purchased it from their original owners and that they had long been aggrieved by the denial of plot possession as the respondents didn’t take the dispute seriously and were not resolving it.

They said that the aggrieved families totalled more than 17,000, while the land, which was disputed in zones I and II, measured 532 acres.

The petitioners said that on Feb 16, 1991, a meeting was held by authorities with elders of the Kukikhel tribe which was also brought into writing and the terms on which the tribe agreed was duly signed by the authorised Malik Attaullah Jan Kukikhel.

They, however, said that the Kukikhel tribe created an issue from the Maffey Griffith Line.

The petitioners contended that the Kukikhels were continuously violating the Maffey Griffith Line and the terms agreed initially by them in the said meeting and were also constructing houses on that land in RMT and thus, causing irreparable loss to them.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2023