PHC seeks govt response in Chitral land settlement case.

PESHAWAR -- The Peshawar High Court on Monday admitted to hearing a petition against a notification issued over four decades ago to declare Chitral region's all mountains, wastelands, jungles, pastures and riverbeds the property of the provincial government.

A bench consisting of Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Waqar Ahmad after preliminary hearing of the petition sought comments from the Federal Secretary of Law and Justice, the Chief Secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Senior Member Board of Revenue (SMBR) and the deputy commissioners and settlement officers of the districts of Upper and Lower Chitral.

Over 100 Chitral residents, including former MPA Ghulam Mohammad and elder Muhibullah, have moved the court claiming to be aggrieved by the ongoing land settlement in Upper and Lower Chitral districts.

Asadul Mulk, lawyer for petitioners, enumerated the statutory and constitutional defects in the 1975 notification.

He said apart from the 'vagueness doctrine', the case also involved the gauging of the 1975 notification in light of Articles 23 and 24 of the Constitution, which entrenched proprietary rights as fundamental rights, and Article 25, which prohibited discrimination.

Residents challenge notification to declare region's mountains, pastures, riverbeds govt property

The lawyer said the 1975 notification's reconcilability with Article 171 of the Constitution, which deals with ownerless properties, was also questioned, as was its reconcilability with the report of the Land Dispute Inquiry Commission, constituted in the 1970's.

He said the petitioners were not opposed to land settlement and instead, they were opposed to any process, which did not follow due process and trampled on their proprietary rights.

Justice Syed Arshad Ali observed that the high court would evaluate the constitutionality of the 1975 notification independently and the petitioners should not worry about their proprietary rights being invaded and in case they were, then the high court would interfere.

The petitioners requested the court to order a halt to the land settlement process for being 'sequestration of their private or collective properties'.

They sought the striking down of the notification saying unless the notification is there, the government will proceed to declare over 95 per cent of the districts of Upper and Lower Chitral its property.

Barrister Asad said following the abolition of the Frontier States, a phenomenal amount of disputes concerning...