MUZAFFARABAD, Feb 16: The Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) seems to be in no mood to vacate the AJK government’s land adjacent to the civil secretariat in the state capital at the earliest in sharp contrast to the organisation’s own commitment and claims by some senior government functionaries.

The piece of land, measuring around 111 kanals, was given to the enterprise in 1976 after the federal government had decided to hand over the construction of major roads in AJK to the army. The handover was on a temporary basis for establishment of FWO’s camp office, but it was mutually agreed that the organisation would vacate as and when the AJK government required the land for extension of the secretariat.

Though the roads were given back to the AJK public works department in 1980, the FWO however did not vacate the land, maintaining that it was undertaking some road construction projects in the district, sources told Dawn.

According to the sources, from 1999 onwards, the AJK government started seeking intervention of the federal government to get its land vacated from the FWO, but to no avail.

The vacation however became all the more essential in the aftermath of the Oct 2005 earthquake which demolished a number of official buildings in the state capital, thus warranting extension of infrastructure in the civil secretariat complex, sources added.

They claimed that in March last year the FWO showed readiness to vacate the land, requesting the AJK government to help it find an alternative piece of land for its camp office.

Following the indications, the AJK revenue department identified some private sites, one of which, measuring 30 kanals, was acquired by the FWO in September on rent near Subri village along the Jhelum valley road. The organisation, sources said, had paid the rent of the aforementioned land from September to December and was reportedly contemplating to purchase it.—Tariq Naqash