CHARSADDA: Land owners in Charsadda have demanded of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to enact legislation on the pattern of that of the Punjab government against what they called land mafia.

In this regard, an emergent meeting of Land Owners Association was held on Thursday in Tangi area with former DIG Liaquat Ali Khan in the chair. A large number of land owners including Dost Muhammad Khan, Marjan Ali Khan and Asim Ali Khan participated in the meeting.

The meeting strongly condemned the prevailing chaos created by some elements, allegedly involved in terrorism cases in North Hashtnagar, obstructing legal evictions of land grabbers in the light of courts orders and illegal occupation of land.

The participants said that some elements wanted in Schedule IV and terrorism cases were not only occupying the land of the landlords but had also had turned into a resistance group to stop the implementation of court decisions.

The meeting was informed that the supreme court, high court and the federal commission had given clear decisions in favour of the landlords after 47 year-long litigation, while the supreme court had also abolished the right of appeal to the occupants.

Former DIG Liaquat Ali Khan said that the landowners were peaceful citizens and only wanted to reclaim their lands according to court decisions, but when legal eviction started, these elements not only resisted but also provoked students of educational institutions, a clear violation of human rights and a violation of state and courts orders.

He further said the residents who had possessed only three-marla land had now become owners of hundreds of acres of land, while the ‘economically weak’ landlords were not even in a position to bear the educational expenses of their children.

He said no police action against those wanted in terrorism cases is an utter failure of the administration.

Meanwhile, the landowners expressed their determination to reclaim their land and rights through legal means and through a unanimous resolution demanded similar legislation in the KP that was enacted against the encroachment mafia in Punjab province.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2025