Court issues notice to Mardan cops

Land grabbing

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday issued a notice to policemen for allegedly occupying land of a citizen in Mardan district.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Musarrat Hilali and Justice Qalandar Ali Khan put on notice police constables including Gul Wahab, Nadir Khan, Amjad Khan, Salim and Muhammad Ali. They were directed to submit reply in the petition.

The bench issued the notice in a writ petition filed by Aziz Shah advocate through his lawyer Aminur Rehman Yousafzai, as he claimed that the policemen had illegally occupied his 8-kanal land.

The petitioner’s lawyer submitted before the bench that the petitioner had also filed a complaint with district police officer (DPO), Mardan, to take notice of the illegal occupation of land by the police cops, but to no avail.

He submitted that the petitioner then moved an application in the court of additional district and sessions judge, Mardan. He said that the SHO concerned then submitted proper report on the court’s directives about the illegal occupation of the land, but the court declared the application non-maintainable and dismissed it.

The lawyer said that there is no truth on the objections in the report by the police and requested the court to issue order for vacating land of the petitioner. Separately, the same bench also issued a notice to authorities of Cantonment Board Peshawar and a contractor in a writ petition filed against parking tax on a busy road in Peshawar Saddar Bazaar.

During hearing, the petitioner’s lawyer Qazi Muhammad Anwar submitted that the Cantonment Board was collecting tax from vehicles on a road outside Jan Arcade and Combined Military Hospital (CMH).

He said the Cantonment Board had given the road on a contract and tax was being collected from the vehicles, which he called illegal. Qazi Anwar argued that no such tax is being imposed on roads as toll tax is only being collected on the main roads. The bench, after preliminary hearing, issued notice to the Cantonment Board authorities and the contractor to submit reply before next hearing.