PESHAWAR: The district administration has sealed 21 illegal housing schemes in Charsadda and registered cases against seven owners, the Peshawar High Court was informed on Thursday.

Additional advocate general Sardar Ali Raza told a bench consisting of Justice Roohul Amin Khan and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim that a report submitted to the court disclosed that 21 illegal housing schemes in Charsadda district had been sealed and they were spread over an area of 2,803 kanals of land.

The bench was hearing a petition filed by advocate Asif Ali Shah against the establishment of housing societies on agricultural lands in Charsadda district.

The respondents in the petition are the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, senior member board of revenue, secretaries of agriculture, environment, and local government departments, and the Charsadda deputy commissioner.

PHC observes it will examine NOCs given to societies

Advocate Babar Khan Yousafzai appeared for the Charsadda tehsil municipal administration and said until a few years ago, the population of Charsadda was 400,000 but it had risen to around two million.

He said there was a committee of the district administration and with the approval of that committee, the TMA issued no objection certificates to private housing societies.

During hearing, Justice Roohul Amin Khan observed that the court would also examine how NOCs were issued to the legal societies, whether those were fulfilling the legal requirements or not.

The bench observed that it was a prerequisite for every society that there should be provisions for clean water, electricity, natural gas and proper drainage systems.

It was observed that the bench would see whether the relevant institutions, including the Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited and Peshawar Electric Supply Company, were taken into confidence before the issuance of NOC to societies by the TMA.

The lawyer for TMA said he would file comments wherein the issues raised by the petitioner would be addressed.

The petitioner said the residents of Charsadda were dependent on agriculture, fishing and livestock. He added that Charsadda was contributing 85 metric tons of fish to the fish market in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

He said Charsadda was the second largest producer of sugarcane in the province.

The petitioner said the livestock farming of the district contributed 940 million litres of milk.

He claimed that property dealers had started establishing illegal housing societies on the agricultural lands in Charsadda and the government employees were also hands in glove with realtors.

The petitioner contended that Charsadda was fast losing agricultural land to the rapid urbanisation, which was threatening agriculture, fishing and livestock farming.

He said under the law, nobody was allowed to use agricultural land for any other purpose except farming.

The petitioner said even the government, under the law, could not use the agricultural land for other purposes. He alleged that the revenue department and the district administration had closed their eyes to the illegal practices.

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2022