Land Grabbing has always been one of the basic problems in the rural areas of Peshawar for the innocent and helpless public. In district Peshawar there are several prominent land mafia groups active in land grabbing. Most of land grabber mafia was limited to grabbing lands in the urban areas or graveyards. For instance, the Rehman Baba Cemetery (Akhun Abad Graveyard) is one of the biggest and oldest cemeteries in Peshawar which originally had the area of 198 acres but currently due to land grabbers mafia and illegal constructions the area of Rehman baba cemetery has shrank to 74 acres. Similarly a group of land grabbers mafia during 2012 in the Beri Bagh area Peshawar daringly illegally grabbed around 12 kanals and 4 marlas of ancestral graveyard of a local citizen who possessed the ownership documents of the same ancestral graveyard dating back 1870.
In the present times, the land mafia has changed their tactics as well as their focus from urban areas towards the pricey lands of rural areas. It is a well-known fact that most of the undesirable elements of the society are associated with land grabbing mafia groups, have criminal background or backed by highly influential people for ulterior motives which also include government officials and have involved themselves in the most profitable business of land grabbing activities and selling government properties to interested buyers with the connivance of local patwaries , unaware of the revenue record.
A most powerful group of land grabber mafia has adopted a very unique way of grabbing land from not only the innocent and helpless citizens of Peshawar but also the properties belonging to the government of Pakistan. This land grabber mafia is hand in gloves with Municipal Committee officials and is daringly grabbing commercial and residential, private and government properties in University Town, Peshawar, regardless being the government property.
This particular land grabber mafia is headed by a retired government official (Town Municipal Administration) TMA office of University Town Peshawar, has fraudulently sold several residential and commercial government plots belonging to defence forces land (PAF base) and TMA to interested buyers. Their way of crime is very traditional for instance, a government plot measuring 12 marlas situated on the border of the PAF base and TMA property was not in use for many years. The TMA office was planning to construct offices for their staff in this plot but due to some unknown reasons left the plot unoccupied and built a much bigger building in the center of university town Peshawar. After passing some time the TMA retired official head of the land grabber mafia active in University town, Moza Pawaka, Peshawar, sold the same plot to an innocent lady. It is important to mention here that the Land grabber mafia with the connivance of the then patwari fraudulently entered the khasras of an old graveyard (situated in the same area) in the mutation document and gave the possession of government property to an innocent lady who was unaware of the real fact.
Recently due to terrorism wave and security reasons the PAF Base started constructing a wall around its base. While the wall construction reached to the same plot sold by the retired TMA officer decades ago was found to the property of the Pakistan Air Force and did not belong to the TMA office. Now the Pakistan Air Force demands it property back from the innocent lady and the matter has reached to the court of law. While on the other hand the retired TMA officer the head of the land grabber mafia, the district administration and the law enforcement agencies have become silent spectators.
Selling the government property is like selling Pakistan itself and this act comes under the treachery but regardless of this fact the land grabber mafia is active and undeterred. Moreover, there is an urgent need of inquiry in this matter by the law enforcement agencies and the district administration and those found guilty should be punished for their illegal and unlawful acts.
On the condition of anonymity, a respectable member of the same locality said that there is another plot measuring around 1 kanal which is the property of a lady living abroad but the retired officer from the TMA office and the head of a land grabber mafia group who also owns inherited property in the same locality again with the connivance of the current patwari of moza Pawaka tempered the revenue record and grabbed the plot. In addition, this land grabber mafia group is now selling the same plot belonging to an innocent lady for millions of rupees while the lady being living in foreign country is not aware of the land grabber mafia’s this illegal and unlawful act.
All in all, the land grabber mafia is very active in Old Bara Road, Peshawar, and is busy in grabbing private and government proprieties while the district administration and law enforcement agencies doing nothing. Fraudulently grabbing and selling the government of Pakistan’s property is considered treachery with the beloved country and punishable under the laws of the land. It is the duty of the district administration and other law enforcement agencies to conduct inquiry in this matter and punish the culprits and to prevent such like incidents in the future.
The writer is a senior journalist. He can be reached at pmpk55@hotmail.com
