CHARSADDA: A local court has granted stay order on the ongoing operation against encroachments in Utmanzai Bazaar here.

The court, presided over by district and sessions judge Ajmal Tahir, was hearing a petition here the other day filed by Zar Bakht Khan, the grandson of reputed educationist, Abdul Ali Khan, who was the son of the founder of Khudai Khidmatgar movement of Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, lovingly called Bacha Khan.

Later, while talking to mediapersons, the petitioner alleged that the district administration and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Highway Authority (KPHA) were hell-bent on demolishing the historic Utmanzai Bazaar on the pretext of encroachments by tempering with the official record.

“It is our inherited property and as per the maps of 1926 we have not encroached upon a single inch,” he said, adding he would present the evidence of record tempering before the court on next hearing.

Zar Bakht said they had approached the provincial chief secretary, KPHA director and Charsadda deputy commissioner, apprising them of the fact that Bacha Khan had founded Gur Mandi and the shops, recently declared by the district administration as encroachments, in 1926. “But my all efforts to convince them failed to bring any fruit.”

The petitioner said the colonial rule even could not find any legal anomaly in the construction of Gur Mandi and the shops in question, but the present government of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, which claims to be the harbinger of justice, is not even sparing the predecessors of those who dedicated their lives for the freedom movement and the cause of education.

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2019