PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday issued a stay order suspending a notification of the Swabi deputy commissioner for acquiring ‘fertile’ land for setting up a small industrial estate.

A bench consisting of Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Mohammad Faheem Wali fixed March 8 for the next hearing into a petition filed by Swabi residents Zahirullah and Iftitahullah Khan against the imposition of Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act by the DC in his capacity as land acquisition collector.

The petitioners claimed that the land being acquired by the administration for the establishment of an industrial zone by the Small Industries Development Board (SIDB), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, was mostly agricultural land and not barren.

Issues notices to DC, SIDB in the case

The bench issued notices to the respondents, including the Swabi DC and SIDB, asking them to respond to the petition on next hearing.

The petitioners claim that the DC had imposed Section 4 on fertile agricultural land by declaring it barren, which would badly affect agricultural activities in the district.

The bench suspended the DC notification issued on Jan 20 and directed additional advocate general Syed Sikandar Hayat Shah to inform the relevant officials to stop action on the notification.

It expressed annoyance over the conversion of agricultural land for other purposes observing that for different projects including motorways and China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) agricultural land had been utilised.

The chief justice questioned why the SIDB had been eyeing fertile land for establishment of industrial estates.

The bench observed that the SIDB should first improve the conditions of the existing industrial estates instead of acquiring agricultural land for new estates.

It was observed that despite being an agrarian country it had to import agriculture products.

Advocate Rahmanullah Shah appeared for the petitioners and contended that on the requisition of SIDB, the Swabi deputy commissioner had issued the impugned notification imposing Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act for acquiring over 1,000 kanals of agricultural land for an industrial estate and declared the same as barren.

He claimed that the land on which section 4 was imposed, was situated near Swabi University and was agriculture land irrigated through the Pehur High Level Canal.

The lawyer said around Rs24 billion was spent on the construction of that canal for turning barren land into the agricultural one.

He said the provincial government had issued an order in 2020 against the use of agricultural land for any other purpose.

The counsel claimed that the SIDB had been acting at the behest of an influential politician of the area for setting up an industrial zone.

He said several tubewells were sunk on that land.

The lawyer said farmers had been cultivating tobacco there. He attached several photos with the petition to show that the agricultural land is fertile and not barren.

He requested the bench to suspend the notification until the final disposal of the petition.

The chief justice asked the AAG what policies the government was making and observed that fertile land was acquired for the motorway by giving very low payments to landowners.

The bench warned that it won’t allow anyone to play havoc with agricultural land under any pretext.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2022