PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on Thursday decided that all the land, which was allotted for industrial purposes but had yet not been utilised, would be repossessed.

The decision was made during a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur and attended by the relevant cabinet members, chief secretary, additional chief secretary, administrative secretaries and other senior officials, according to an official statement issued by the Chief Minister’s Secretariat.

It added that the chief minister directed the department of industries and the board of revenue to identify such unutilised land across the province and take steps to reclaim them.

He declared that those lands would not be allowed to be used for any purpose other than what they were originally allocated for.

During the meeting, the officials said that the government had allocated lands in different districts to promote industrialisation and create employment opportunities, but a significant portion of those leased lands remained unutilised.

They said that the current market value of the unutilised lands ran into billions of rupees, and the failure to establish industries had undermined the original objective behind their allocation. The officials said that effective utilisation of those pieces of land could significantly boost provincial revenues.

The meeting also deliberated on matters related to leasing government lands for long-term business purposes and decided that the recommendations of the committee formed to propose necessary amendments to the existing laws would be presented for approval in the next cabinet meeting.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2025