ISLAMABAD - The issue of acquisition of private properties in the name of defence and national security and then changing their use other than the military purposes and refusing to pay compensation to the owners came under severe criticism in the Senate here on Monday.
Chairman Senate Nayyer Hussain Bokhari taking severe notice of acquisition of 18,000 acres of land of general public by the military in Nowshera district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which was to be used for firing range and then ministry’s denial to pay compensation to the real landowners, has sought complete details from the incumbent government. The land had been acquired decades ago.
The government gave a cold response on the issue stating the matter was before the Supreme Court and it had already contacted the ministry of defence for the review so that compensation would be paid to the affected people.
However, Senator Farhatullah Babar who had raised the issue through a motion stressed that the SC had dismissed the review application of the ministry of defence as it was time barred and the ministry was completely in the state of denial to pay the money to decree holders of private land owners despite the order of Peshawar High Court in this connection. He stunned the house when he informed that the military had made orchards on most of the land acquired in the name of national defence and a very small piece of land was being used for training purposes.
Talking about the issue Senator Farhatullah Babar said that over 18,000 acres of land belonging to private owners was acquired by the military decades ago in Nowshera ostensibly for the purpose of use as firing range. Several years after the acquisition a compensation of Rs 88 per marla was announced which was far below even the market rate at the time the land was acquired, he said.
The peanut award was challenged in the court upon which the Peshawar High Court raised the compensation to Rs 1500 per marla and 6 per cent simple interest to be paid to all affectees. The defence ministry, however, refused to pay, he said.
Farhatullah Babar said that in July 2012 the defence committee of the Senate on a complaint from the affectees took up the matter. The defence ministry first took the position that it had filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the verdict of the PHC and the matter was sub judice. This position was challenged on the ground that the SC had not granted any stay against the PHC order and that there was no question of a stay order as it was already time barred, he informed.
“In March this year, the committee expressed shock over the delay in settling this human issue and called for urgent action for allocation of funds either by the government or through some other internal adjustments for payment to the affectees,” Babar said. However, no action was taken, he said.
He said that defence ministry to avoid questions of the Senate committee appealed to the Peshawar High Court decision in the SC long after the limitation period but the apex court rejected the appeal being time barred.
He also referred to another case in which the defence ministry’s cantonment department cancelled the lease deed of allotees of 25 plots of land allotted to them through open bidding in 1998 in Rawalpindi by the Punjab government. People had made full payment for the plots situated near the site of the old jail in Rawalpindi, were also armed with a high court verdict but the Cantonment Board authorities refused to let them build houses on grounds of national security.
Senator Mian Raza Rabbani on a point of order said that Prime Minister’s Advisor on National Security should take the house into confidence on the foreign policy, especially about Afghanistan and on the reconstitution of the Defence Committee of the Cabinet (DCC) as Cabinet Committee on National Security (CCNS). He said the formation of CCNS was the violation of Charter of Democracy (CoD) and added that they did not want to talk on the issue as the matter was of sensitive nature till the Advisor would speak on it.
Raja Zafarul Haq endorsed Rabbani and said he would inform the house after talking with the advisor.
The entire opposition benches walked out from the house over the killing of a close relative of Senator Daud Khan Acahakzai of ANP during the August 22 by-polls in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after Senator Afrasayab Khattak spoke on the issue. He said that the protest would continue till the registration of FIR and the bringing real culprits to book.
The house also adopted a resolution on the sale of spurious drugs recommending that effective steps should be taken to eradicate manufacturing and sale of spurious and substandard drugs in the country. Senators Talha Mahmood, the mover, Tahir Mashhadi and M Hamza spoke on the issue and said that the matter was serious in nature as poor masses were the direct victims of such drugs.
The house also referred a number of bills to the standing committees concerned on the private members’ days including the Unattended Orphans (Rehabilitation and Welfare) Bill, 2013.