SARGODHA, May 21: A landlord has allegedly demolished some 80 houses of the poor and occupied 50 kanal land at Juara Skesar village, about 16 kilometres from here.

The lumberdar started bulldozing the mud and brick houses a couple of days ago. He, along with his men, also demolished the house of a widow and set her articles to fire the other day. Mehr Liaquat Hayat, an alleged opponent of Mehr Khudadad (the suspect), is supporting the allottees of the five-marla scheme.

Abdul Rahman, a villager, told this correspondent that over 200 people were allotted plots in 1976 during the Bhutto regime and certificates in this regard were granted by the then deputy commissioner.

Meanwhile, the land was acquired by the assistant commissioner/land acquisition collector, vide order of June 28, 1976, and directed the patwari concerned to change the entries to show that it was acquired permanently for developing a five-marla housing scheme for the homeless people.

Fearing eviction from the land after change in government, the occupants approached the civil court in 1979 and the then civil judge, Ghulam Abbas, issued a decree in their favour, he said.

He said the shelterless people were allotted plots in the shape of ahata (piece of land) where they built houses. However, he said, some influential landlords allegedly managed to avoid implementation of the order for the scheme in the revenue record.

Later, the landowners, including Khudadad and Liaquat Hayat, filed a petition for partition of land with the tehsildar and obtained an order to this effect on April 10, 2002, without making the occupants party to the partition proceedings.

On April 30, 2004, Khudadad allegedly obtained possession with the connivance of some of the revenue staffers and police by showing the residential colony as vacant land. Later, he started bulldozing the houses. The affected people have urged the government to take action against the landlord and provide them compensation for rebuilding their houses.