LOWER DIR/LAKKI MARWAT: Traders and political activists staged a demonstration in Rabat Bazaar on Wednesday, asking the authorities to resolve the dispute over the road’s width, as the Lower Dir administration continued its anti-encroachment drive across the district.

Addressing the protesters, Jamaat-i-Islami’s Shad Nawaz Khan, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl’s Maulana Amanullah, Muqaid Khan and others claimed that the government and the relevant departments had paid compensation to landowners for only 40 feet of land along the road.

They said the landowners were willing to keep the 40-foot-wide road clear but would not agree to surrender 66 feet of land. They urged the authorities to resolve the dispute over the road’s width and the land acquired for it.

However, an official letter from the National Highway Authority (NHA) provides further context to the dispute over the width of the N-45 Road.

Illegal structures also removed in Lakki town

In a letter dated Oct 3, 2025, NHA director (LM&S), North Zone, Mohammad Ikram, asked the deputy commissioner to direct the relevant revenue officials to correct the recorded right-of-way of the N-45 from Chakdara to Wari, within Lower Dir, to 66 feet instead of 40 feet, in accordance with the communication and works department’s record.

The letter also requested the district administration to direct the settlement officer, Lower Dir, to make the necessary correction in the revenue record. It noted that the NHA had previously communicated a road width of 40 feet to the assistant settlement officer through a letter dated July 9, 2024, which now required correction.

Local elders asked the officials concerned to mark the prescribed road limits to enable traders to remove the encroachments accordingly.

Meanwhile, traders in Khall area of Lower Dir on Wednesday voluntarily removed encroachments as shopkeepers in Talash promised to do so in two days.

In Lakki Marwat district, several permanent structures were razed in the Darra Pezu town during the anti-encroachment operation on Wednesday.

The district administration swung into action on expiry of the deadline it had set for the traders to remove encroachments voluntarily.

A team led by assistant commissioner Gohar Ali Khan, along with police and Levies personnel, carried out the operation, with municipal workers demolishing temporary and permanent structures with the help of heavy machinery.

Deputy commissioner Shahid Rafiq said the administration cleared roads from temporary and permanent encroachments in the town. “The successful anti-encroachment operation will help ease traffic on the Indus Highway,” he added.

The deputy commissioner asked the people, especially traders, to remove encroachments voluntarily or face action.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2026