RAWALPINDI – With land mafia ruling the roost one can say the city in general and the National Assembly constituency NA-52 particularly is now in the hands of these lawbreakers who daringly grabbing the private as well as government-owned lands with no action on part of the government and civil administration.
A large number of people have become victims at the hands of these powerful land grabbers, who have strong links with the public elected representatives of ruling party in the province. The victims have been running from pillar to post to get their precious lands back from the clutches of land mafia but in vain.
The saga does not end here as the land mafia also occupied the government-owned acres of land in various areas of the city.
Call it official apathy or connivance, the million dollar question is: who will take action against the land grabbers who are busy filling their coffers and in the process defacing and defiling the city which has been declared a strong hold of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz)?
As for as Chief Minister Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif is concerned, he always ordered his party MPs, the civil administration and police to purge the city of land mafia but, unfortunately, neither the MPs nor the police or civil administration including Commissioner Rawalpindi Division Imdad Ullah Bosal and District Coordination Officer (DCO) Saqib Zafar put their ears on the instructions of CM rather thrown the orders into dustbin.
Taking advantage of the negligence and carelessness of authorities concerned including Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly and MPA elected from NA-52 Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and MPA Chaudhry Sarfraz Afzal, the land grabbers are busy occupying the lands whenever and where ever they want.
Recent example in this regard is illegal occupation of two land grabbers on the government land near Telephone Exchange at Shahpur Seydan on Adyala Road and construction of building despite stay order obtained by three real brothers, who owned some 16 kanals of land adjacent with Adyala Road, from the court of a civil judge.
Muhammad Akram son of Lal Khan, resident of Kalyal, told TheNation on Tuesday that he along with two of his brothers Sabir Hussain and Muhammad Rehman alias Nakki owned a piece of land measuring 16 kanals near Telephone Exchange that through way to Adyala Road. He said that two brothers namely Sajid Mehmood and Nawazish Mehmood sons of Muhammad Ali illegally occupied on the land of government near Adyala Road causing blockage to the way leading to his land. He said that both the occupiers built houses and started selling the government land. He said that he approached the court of Civil Judge Nadia Ikram in 2012 and obtained stay order of the land. But the opponent party violated the court orders and kept continue the construction.
He said that some days ago, Sajid and Nawazish lodged a fake complaint with Police Station (PS) Saddar Bairooni officials alleging him, his brother Nakki and three of his sons Tahir Mehmood, Arshad Mehmood and Zubair Mehmood of damaging their property and houses. He said he did not damage the houses being built illegally on the government land by the land grabbers. He said that police officials have been humiliating him and his family allegedly receiving bribe from the land grabbers.
“I brought the matter into notice of CM Punjab Mian Shahbaz Sharif, Ch Nisar Ali Khan, Ch Sarfraz Afzal, the Commissioner, the DCO and high ups of Punjab Highway departments but none of them take notice” Akram said adding that he has been left with no option but to set his family to fire as protest against ongoing injustice outside CM House, Lahore.
He also appealed to Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry to come forward to rescue him.
Earlier, a group of land grabbing victims including Muhammad Akram tabled a heap of complaints before N league MPA Chaudhry Sarfraz Afzal in January 2013 at a public rally held at a private marriage hall at Dhoke Paharian. The MPA had assured the victims that he would lift the matter before CM and would get strict orders for Rawalpindi Police and district administration to tight noose against the land grabbers.
This scribe, who was also there to cover the rally, several times contacted MPA Sarfraz Afzal in this regard but all the time he ditched his cell phone saying “Now I am busy in a meeting, will call you later”. But it was never done.
Similarly, the matter was also discussed with Commissioner Rawalpindi Division Imdad Ullah Bosal and the Personal Assistant of Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan by The Nation but none of them responded positively, which showed that the MPs and the district administration are hand in gloves with the high and mighty land mafia in the city.