MANSEHRA: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Wednesday opposed the acquisition of land for graveyards in remote parts of the district and announced that it would take up the issue with the National Assembly’s relevant standing committee.

“How can Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly speaker Babar Saleem Swati direct the Mansehra deputy commissioner to acquire land for graveyards in remote areas from federal government funds, ignoring the people of the four urban union councils for whom the money was allocated to the district administration by former premier Nawaz Sharif,” PML-N leader and former MPA Sardar Zahoor told a press conference here.

He said that the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif had allocated Rs200 million in 2015-16 for the purchase of land for graveyards for the people of four urban union councils in Mansehra, where residents had long been facing a scarcity of burial space.

He said the district administration had invoked Section IV of the Land Acquisition Act in 2018 to acquire land for graveyards within the city. However, he alleged that then MPA Babar Saleem Swati had the process cancelled after more than two and a half years in an attempt to claim credit for the project, depriving the residents of the graveyard facility.

Mr Zahoor said that federal minister for religious affairs Sardar Mohammad Yusuf had recently directed the deputy commissioner Mansehra to acquire land worth Rs50 million for each of the city’s four urban union councils. However, instead of implementing those directions, the district administration allegedly acquired land in remote villages on the orders of the KP Assembly speaker.

“Mr Yusuf will take up this issue before the relevant standing committee of the National Assembly to determine how the KP Assembly speaker and the deputy commissioner could misuse federal government funds after keeping them deposited in the official account for more than a decade,” he questioned.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2026