ISLAMABAD, Jan 27: A petition filed by a man from Swat whose family was displaced by army operation and whose farmland was taken over by the authorities was disposed of by the Supreme Court on Friday after the judges made sure that the legal heirs of the petitioner had taken possession of the property.

“For the reason that possession of the property has been taken over by the petitioners — a fact confirmed by petitioner’s counsel Sanaullah Zahid and the Additional Advocate General of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Syed Arshad H, Shah, no further action is called for,” a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry observed.

The bench had taken up the petition of late Abdul Ghaffar Khan, who had to leave his house, garden and orchard while fleeing the militancy-hit district of Swat when operation Raah-i-Raast was launched there. At the hearing on Monday, the court had ordered the authorities to return the ancestral land to the petitioner.

On Friday, the court was informed that the possession of the property had been taken over by Ghaffar Khan’s legal heirs, Ejaz Ahmed Khan and Aurangzeb, residents of Kota in Barikot Tehsil.

On behalf of the defence ministry, Deputy Attorney General Dil Mohammad Alizai told the court that the land had been taken over when the family became IDPs in order to “safeguard their interests”.

In his petition, the petitioner said he owned 500 kanals of land which had 3,000 trees of peach, apricot and plum.

The land was apparently seized by the authorities because the brother-in-law of the petitioner’s son was allegedly involved in anti-state activities and was wanted by officials.

To prove his credentials as a patriotic Pakistani, the petitioner contended that he had served as in-charge of a checkpost for 18 years. Later, he joined the local chapter of Jamaat-i-Islami.