Barrister Asad-ul-Mulk says Judgment Is Opening Path for Private Claims.
PESHAWAR, Dec 16, 2025: In a significant ruling impacting land ownership across Chitral, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) has issued a detailed judgment declaring the 1975 notification of the Home and Tribal Affairs Department to be “rebuttable,” overturning the long-held view that it was “irrebuttable.”
The 1975 notification had deemed all mountains, wastelands, pastures, and riverbeds in Chitral to be government property. On the strength of that directive, approximately 97% of the district’s landmass was entered in the name of the provincial government during the ongoing land settlement process.
The notification and its interpretation were challenged in 2019 by petitioners from Chitral, represented by Barrister Asad-ul-Mulk and Advocate Muhibullah Tarichvi. After years of litigation, the PHC, in an order authored by Justice Wiqar Ahmed, held that while lands such as wastelands, chiragas, shikargas, and mountains are presumed to be owned by the provincial government, that presumption is not absolute.
“Like all presumptions, this presumption is rebuttable,” the judgment states. “Rebuttal may occur where a person produces evidence establishing, on the balance of probabilities, that he and his predecessors have been occupying or cultivating certain lands for time immemorial as owners, or where other proofs of ownership exist.
“If such evidence is successfully produced before a Civil Court of competent jurisdiction, the presumption created by the entries in the 1975 Notification may be rebutted.”
Previously, the notification was treated as immune from challenge under Article 8 of the Constitution because it flowed from the Distribution of Property (Chitral) Regulation, 1974, which is listed in the First Schedule, Part I.
The PHC’s ruling rejects what it termed a despotic reading of that protection.
The court also addressed widespread misconceptions about the scope of the Chitral Land Disputes Inquiry Commission. It clarified that private ownership could exist beyond what was recorded in the Commission’s report.
“The Land Dispute Inquiry Commission did not survey or inquire into every inch of land in the former State of Chitral,” the judgment notes. “There may be privately owned lands for which no dispute was raised, and the matters of such lands would not have been subsequently brought before the Commission.
“The Commission’s mandate was limited to the Terms of Reference under the establishing notification and did not require a comprehensive or determinative survey of all land. The Commission inquired into about six thousand claims filed with the then Deputy Commissioner or the then Commissioner of Malakand Division. Only those disputes which were addressed by the Commission, and in respect of which it gave recommendations in the form of the 1975 Notification, have been decided.”
Legal observers say the decision could reshape land rights in Chitral by allowing individuals and communities to present historical possession and ownership evidence before civil courts, potentially reversing government entries made under the 1975 regime.
Authorities and stakeholders are expected to review the judgment’s implications for ongoing settlement proceedings.
Related:
PHC Concludes Chitral Land Settlement Litigation.
KP govt continues delaying tactics in 1975 notification case.
Landowners challenge 1975’s notification in high court.
Political parties, civil society decide to challenge 1975 notification in superior courts.