CHITRAL: According to the provincial government’s notification of 1975, Balach Shotar is a state property, said the deputy commissioner of Lower Chitral in a statement on Tuesday.
The statement comes a few days after Fatehul Mulk Ali Nasir announced a ban on hunting of migratory birds such as ducks in the Balach area which is owned by him.
The DC said the matter was sub judice and till the announcement of a judgment by the court the Balach Shotar spreading over 982 kanals and 18 marlas would be considered as a state property.
He said under the 1975 notification, all riverbeds in the province were the property of the government.
Also read: Political parties decide to challenge 1975 notification in superior courts.
The Deputy Commissioner Lower Chitral should be congratulated for the zeal with which he has declared Balach Shotar to be State property. I wish the DC who represents the provincial government had shown the same zeal in providing irrigation and drinking water to the people of Barghuzi, Mori and Chitral Town. Sadly our entire focus in Chitral now seems to be on grabbing the 3% of the land that is only habitable in the vast mountain desert that constitutes Chitral. It is amazing how the government has woken up to the 1975 notification which was framed at a time when even the Bridge that connects the main town to Denin did not exist and Chitral could only be reached through jeeps over the Chowni bridge. It was long time ago. The government of Pakistan slept over the notification since that time and has suddenly woken up to it and is willing to use the power of this arbitrary notification. In all these years the government never realised that the notification was a gross violation of fundamental rights of the Pakistani citizens residing in this area. Any notification that remains in abeyance for such a long time is so for good reasons. However when you wake up to grab lands and rights of people it is also incumbent on the holders of these positions of trust to take time to understand the pitfalls with this notification which was issued at a time when no one including the government understood what it meant. The DC needs to apply his mind to these issues and find solutions that is win win for the people here and for the government. Instead the qabza mentality now seems to have become the norm in governance too and the representatives of the provincial government which is removed far away from the lives of the people lack the capacity to communicate with it.