ISLAMABAD: A special Senate committee will be taking up next week the thorny issue of the commercial use of hundreds of thousands of acres acquired by the armed forces for defence purposes, Dawn has learnt.

The committee headed by Senator Afrasiab Khattak of the Awami National Party (ANP) will also take up the three-decade-old issue of non-payment of compensation to the villagers and owners of thousands of acres acquired by the military in Nowshera district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for setting up a firing range.

The four-member committee was constituted by the parliament’s upper house on November 4 after the members expressed their dissatisfaction over the government’s reply on the issue of non-payment of compensation to the landowners in Nowshera despite orders of the superior courts.

The committee, also comprising Syed Zafar Ali Shah of the PML-N, Abbas Afridi from Fata and Kalsoom Parveen of the BNP-A, is scheduled to meet on Monday (Jan 6).

The committee is set to “examine the use of land for commercial projects by the defence ministry and to make appropriate recommendations”, says the agenda for the meeting.

The Senate has been debating the matter on a motion moved by Senator Farhatullah Babar of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) in August last year.

Calling for payment of compensation to the affected persons of the AFV Ranges, Nowshera, in accordance with the court’s verdicts, Senator Babar had stated that this was only one instance which demonstrated the need for looking into the management of military lands.

Almost all the reports of the auditor general of Pakistan have pointed out that the use of military lands for commercial purposes is irregular and the matter has also been pending before the all-powerful Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly.

This will be for the first time that the issue will be discussed by a parliamentary committee.

The government’s failure to come up with a satisfactory reply on the issue of non-payment of compensation to the owners of the lands acquired by the military in Nowshera in 1973 for setting up a firing range prompted the members to form the special committee. Moreover, the opposition senators stressed the need for reviewing the legal position of the land after Mr Babar told the house that the military authorities had developed orchards at the site which had initially been acquired by them for training purposes.

The defence ministry in its last report submitted to the standing committee on defence had stated that the army’s General Headquarters (GHQ) had referred the case of allocation of over Rs1.5 billion for payment of compensation to the affected persons to the Ministry of Finance which advised the defence ministry to submit a summary to the cabinet. However, no summary had yet been submitted to the cabinet as the defence ministry was seeking to link it with some other similar cases besides filing a review petition in the Supreme Court.

Earlier, the ministry had been taking the position that the matter was sub judice which was challenged by Senator Babar who insisted that no stay had been granted against the order of Peshawar High Court (PHC) in favour of the landowners and the Supreme Court had also rejected the ministry’s appeal being time barred.

The PPP senator, who belongs to Nowshera, alleges that while the affected people are running from pillar to post to get their rights, orchards have been grown on the land acquired in the name of national defence.

According to Mr Babar, over 18,000 acres belonging to private owners was acquired by the military in 1973 ostensibly for the purpose of using the land as firing range. Several years after the acquisition, a compensation at the rate of Rs88 per marla was announced which was far below the market rate at the time the land was acquired. The award was challenged in the court upon which the PHC ordered payment of compensation at the rate of Rs1,500 per marla with additional six per cent simple interest. The defence ministry, however, refused to pay, he regretted.

Mr Babar said that during the government of his own PPP, the defence committee of the Senate had taken up the matter, but the ministry officials used delaying tactics and made different excuses.

After listening to the debate on the issue, Senate chairman remarked: “If the government is sincere in addressing the issue and pay the rightful dues of the owners, it should allocate funds for payment instead of filing review petition unnecessarily.”

When federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs Barjees Tahir said the government had allocated over Rs5 billion for this purpose and taking up the matter with the army’s GHQ, Senate Chairman Nayyar Bokhari asked why the government was allowing other institutions to use its forum.