Chitral village land dispute

The News - CHITRAL: Tension prevailed in Seenlasht village here Thursday as the authorities were preparing to implement the Supreme Court verdict on vacation of the disputed land.

A dispute over the land ownership has been running between Prince Amir Hasanatuddin, grandson of late Senator Shahzada Burhanuddin, and 103 families of Seenlasht village for the last 40 years.

A month ago, the Supreme Court decided the case in favour of Prince Hasanatuddin and asked the civil judge to implement the verdict. Though the district administration had taken steps to prevent any untoward incident, there was every possibility of a clash between the two parties.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court again issued directives to the authorities to implement the verdict in letter and spirit. However, the 103 families are reluctant to vacate the land and their houses. They say that the administration would have to pass on their dead bodies to reclaim the land.

Police contingents including female police personnel had arrived in the area to control the situation. In a last-ditch effort, district revenue officer, assistant commissioner, tehsildar and police officials besides elders and notables of the area are jointly making endeavours to resolve the issue through parleys. However, if the talks did not prove fruitful then the district administration would have to take extreme steps to get the land and homes vacated forcibly.

Meanwhile, Sher Muhammad Khan and others who presently hold control of the land in question have demanded of the chief justice to appoint a judicial commission comprising judges of the apex court to probe the case. They said that their undisputed lands were also included in the list of disputed lands for execution in favour of Prince Hasanatuddin.

“We were neither a party to the case nor our lands were disputed. We had not been tried in any court of law,” Sher Muhammad said. He asked Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry to appoint a judicial commission to probe the case keeping in view the gravity of the situation.