ISLAMABAD - The Senate Committee on Defence yesterday asked the military authorities to revisit the decision of evicting 34 families from their homes in Loralai Cantonment.
The issue, when first raised in the Senate in December last by senators Sardar Azam Khan Musakhel and Usman Khan Kakar was referred to the defence committee and was discussed in the committee’s meeting last month.
The meeting chaired by Mushahid Husssain Syed was attended by senators Lt-Gen Salahuddin Tirmizi, Saleem A Mandviwalla, Moulana Attaur Rehman and Farhatullah Babar. The secretary defence, senior officers of the ministry and station commander of Loralai Cantonment also attended.
Movers were however not present on Wednesday due to the death of their party colleague Abdur Rahim Mandokhel MNA. Some victim families were also present.
According to details the quarters in question have been built on government land and managed by the local station headquarters. Besides FC and Loralai scouts some civilians have also been rented out the quarters under an agreement signed in March 1999.
According to official brief, the tenants of 34 quarters were however recently ordered evicted by the station headquarters for alleged involvement in “illegal and immoral activities”. The eviction orders led to widespread protests.
Reading out from the March 1999 agreement between military and tenants, Senator Farhatullah Babar said that that the agreement did not permit the station headquarters to evict people on any grounds whatsoever.
If some residents have violated the law they should be proceeded against in the courts by following due process of law.
It is not within the powers of the Cantonment Board to accuse residents of unspecified criminal charges behind a generic term “bad character” citing intelligence sources, declare the charges as proven and then order evictions that is provided neither in the law nor in the agreement.
Clearly this is a case of blatant transgression of authority by the Cantonment Board that must not be allowed and the malafide seems obviously floating on the surface of record, Babar said.
Eviction from and demolition of houses has been resorted to only in Israel against Palestinians and under the draconian FCR in Pakistan’s neglected tribal areas, he said.
Resorting to this practice by military authorities in cantonments will have far-reaching negative fallout for the defence ministry, he warned.
The cantonment board authorities have to follow the law.
They cannot be allowed to act as prosecutor, judge and jury all in one.
There is already a growing sense of alienation among the people of Balochistan from the state and society and this move will only deepen the wounds, Babar said.
He recalled that the human rights committee of the Senate was appalled when informed recently that relatives of none of the 51 mutilated bodies found in Balochistan had chosen to file FIRs with the police.
This, Babar said was a measure of their distrust in the system and alienation from the state.
“For God sake don’t do anything that will only further accentuate the hurt feelings of the people”, he empathised.
Responding to the secretary defence, he said that he would take up the matter with the relevant authorities and urge them to revisit their decision of evicting people.
Senator Babar also complained that despite passage of five months he had still not been provided copies of the rules and regulations framed in pursuance of the acts of the parliament relating to the Ministry of Defence.
He wondered as to why the defence ministry was so reluctant to provide Parliament copy of rules and regulations that flow from legislation and are supposed to be public document.
The chairman committee directed secretary defence to provide copies of rules and regulations asked for.