Qaqlasht housing scheme will never be allowed: JI
As reported in ChitralToday on Sunday, the chief minister issued the direction about the progress report on the controversial housing scheme during a meeting with a delegation from Chitral, which consisted mostly of local PTI leaders.
It may be clarified that the provincial government, on the proposal of the local PTI leaders, wants to launch a housing project on the Qaqlasht plateau in front of Booni in upper Chitral by involving a property tycoon and builder from Punjab. The provincial government would earn billions of rupees by selling plots and houses under the project.
However, local people are of the view that they had been using Qaqlasht as a pasture for centuries and would resist the plan by the government to launch a housing scheme on the land.
Talking to ChitralToday on phone from Booni on Monday evening, JI upper Chitral leader Shuja Uddin Raza said his party at a meeting on Monday rejected the proposed scheme and wanted to made it clear once again that the people of the area would never ever allow any government housing scheme on Qaqlasht.
He said launching such a project in the area would not only deprive the local people of their propriety right on the pasture but would also cause a cultural invasion by the settlement of people from all parts of the country in the heart of Chitral.
Mr Shuja said if the government was sincere in developing the area it should provide funds to the local people for the supply of water so that the barren land can be brought under cultivation and distributed among the local people, including those rendered homeless by the flash floods and earthquake of 2015.
He said the local people would also have no reservations if the government established educational institutions or air bases at Qaqlasht but launching housing schemes would never be allowed.
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settling the homeless people at Qaqkast who became homeless as a result of devastating floods and earthquack should be our agenda one by all people of Chitral.If there is any apprehension of the outsiders i mean people from the down country would grab the lands.This apprehension can be eliminated by establishing housing construction societies by the local people in upper Chitral.Local people have the expertise to do that and the KPK government should work with the locally organised groups.The government can provide architects to guide the whole projects.If the local organised groups can complete this housing project they will also be responsible to the local people.The dilemma of construction by outsiders commercial groups is that they would come and abruptly disappear.There is one NGOs that have the expertise of housing construction in Karachi note ably is AKPBS Pakistan.since this is a non commercial and humanitarian organisation their architects can guide the local housing organised groups in the right direction and in this way the expertise of the local people would also increase.Iet us agree that first we should settle our homeless brothers and sisters at Qaqlasht without making it a political issue.The people of Booni and Mulkhow and other areas of upper chitral have the inherent capacity to settle their pasture issues themselves rather than calling someone from down country.
Nizar Ali Shah
Harchin Chitral
make it an airbase
MR Obaid khan Sab……Qaqlasht par apko agar haq ay istifada hasil hain to aab baat kar saktey hain.warna ye aak elaqe k awam la ishtimai charagah hai.or wohi loag ispr baat karney ka haq rahte hain.to zaara sukoon sy rehe.
I second the thought put forward by Sher Wali Khan Sb, this is not the time to quarrel over grazing land which is already declared government property. This vast area need to be utilized and this is one the best options we have. Chitral has very serious issues related to global warning and the situation will remain to be difficult as predicted by the experts. In this situation this is good news that the CM khattak as announced to give 5000 kanals to people of Chitral who have lost their homes in the floods and earthquake. This big should not be politicized and should happen in the best interest of Chitral. This project has potential to create job opportunities for us and bring economic benefits and safe housing.
J.I’s stand on Qaqlasht Housing scheme is not justified. Qaqlasht is the only safe barren plateau in Chitral to provide safe shelter to the people of the most vulnerable parts of the district. Chitral is a declared Red Zone area, therefore, safety of human lives should be our top priority. To speak of pasture when there is cry for life safety is an inhuman act and totally against our inherited civilization. We had shared our limited housing and boarding facilities with our Afghan brethren in early Eighties whose loyalty has been a big question mark through out the history. Now we are denying barren piece of land to our own countrymen?
We support the stand to the extent that no outsider is settled under Qaqlasht Housing Scheme and plots are allotted to undeserving people in violation of merit.
Instead of quarreling for pastures, here I would like to request our leadership to consider abolition of goat-farming which is one of the biggest disturbing agent of the ecological balance of our wildlife. In is my viewpoint that the most destructive floods during the past decade have, mainly, been the result of our increased number of goats.