ISLAMABAD, July 31: The family members of the Ghazi Barotha Hydro Power Project (GBHP) affected persons, including aged women and children, staged a protest demonstration against the “highhandedness” of the law enforcement agencies in front of the World Bank offices here on Wednesday.

About 300 women, some of them with infants, presented a memorandum to the World Bank officials about the maltreatment to their dear ones by the NAB officials.

They were holding placards inscribed with slogans like “stop injustices against the affected persons of Ghazi Barotha Project”, “The World Bank should fulfil its promises”, “Take your money and give our land back”, “Wapda, World Bank, ADB, shame shame,” World Bank and ADB are violating their resettlement and environment policy guidelines”.

As many as 32 persons had been arrested by NAB for getting overpayments by distorting facts in connivance with the land department officials for their lands acquired for the project.

A protester said that the arrested persons had been in NAB custody for the last nine months and no charges had formally been framed against them.

He lamented that the displaced people of the project, after the passage of more than 10 years, were now being accused of overpayments through distortion of facts.

Jahangir Khan, one of the few males who were accompanying the protesting women, while talking to this reporter, said on the directions of the World Bank, a land valuation committee (LVC) had been constituted to oversee the acquisition procedure.

Although, the committee after assessment fixed Rs65,000 per kanal rate for their lands, the land acquisition collector disagreed with the evaluation and finally agreed at Rs40,000 per kanal and made payments to the affected people according to their land holdings.

“Since the NAB officials are paid 25 per cent of all the recoveries, they are trying to extort some money from the affected people who had offered their land for the project”, a protester said.

Another protester added that they had filed a petition against the NAB action in the Lahore High Court, Rawalpindi bench. Justice Nawaz Abbasi had ordered NAB not to change the land acquisition award but “even then we are being harassed out of no reasons”, he said.

The allegations, that three persons from the displaced community — Fateh Khan, 80 years old; Zumurrad Khan, 70 years old and Haji Taj, 72 years old — in connivance with the land acquisition department had got enhanced the rate of their lands, are unsubstantiated.

As a matter of fact, the land compensation was given according to the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank — the financiers of the project — directives, hence there was no chances of any embezzlement.