PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has directed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to submit its policy on housing schemes and industrial zones to know about measures for the protection of agricultural land in the province.

A bench consisting of Justice Abdul Shakoor and Justice Syed Arshad Ali asked provincial advocate general Aamir Javed to produce that policy document on behalf of the government.

It issued the order during the hearing into a petition against the acquisition of ‘fertile’ land in Swabi district for setting up a small industrial estate.

The petition was filed by Swabi residents Zahirullah and Iftitahullah Khan against the imposition of Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act in the area by the DC in his capacity as the land acquisition collector.

Petition challenged acquisition of ‘fertile’ land in Swabi district for industrial estate

The bench also directed the Small Industrial Development Board (SIDB), which intended to set up industrial estate on the said land, to provide details of the project and its environmental impact to deputy director (legal) of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Mumtaz Ali to compile a report sought by the high court during the last hearing.

During thelast month hearing, the court had impleaded the provincial agriculture secretary and EPA director-general as respondents in the petition.

It had directed the two to appoint officers with expertise in developing reports about the viability of the land in question to produce food grains for the people of the area and the province as well as the environmental impact of the establishment of a small industrial estate in the area.

When the bench began hearing into the matter, EPA deputy director Mumtaz Ali said he couldn’t carry out the land’s assessment unless the relevant department submitted an application regarding the project.

The bench directed SIDB lawyer Waseemuddin Khattak to hand over the project’s details to Mr Ali within a week to produce the report within a month.

Section officer (litigation) of the agriculture department Ikram Mohammad also submitted a report to the court about the assessment of land to be acquired for the project.

The report said that most of the area was covered by the cereal crops, mustard crops and tobacco.

It added that the wheat and mustard crops were harvested during the month of Apr and May 2023, while Virginia tobacco was found in standing position in the fields.

Last year, the court had suspended a notification of Swabi’s deputy commissioner to acquire land for the project and declared that the interim relief granted to the petitioners would continue.

Lawyer Rahmanullah Shah 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 claiming over 1,000 kanals of agricultural land for the industrial estate.

He claimed that the land on which Section 4 of the law was imposed was located near the Swabi University, agricultural in nature, and irrigated through the Pehur High Level Canal.

The lawyer said that around Rs24 billion was spent on the construction of that canal to irrigate the barren land for farming.

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

The counsel said that several tubewells were sunk on that land with farmers growing tobacco on it.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2023