ISLAMABAD: The residents of village Rak Mara Nilhad, district Attock, requested Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan that their houses should not be demolished as they have been residing there since 1914.
They said that the police and forest department have forcefully destroyed their wheat crops without any notice after losing the case in court and has given a two-week deadline to demolish their houses as well.
Talking to Pakistan Today, elders of Rak Mara of tehsil Pindigheb said that their forefathers have been residing there and they irrigated the land.
However, they were asked to vacate their houses within two days as their houses would be demolished on Monday after destroying their crops.
Mehboob Khan, an elder of the area, said that there are around 45 houses and all are very poor people, living in mud houses, who are working in other cities of the country to earn their livelihood.
He said that they have been paying the government thousands of rupees annually since decades and have all the proofs, but they were never told that the land they occupied is part of forest land.
He further said that the residents of Chuk Mansoora, an attached village, was given land ownership rights but residents of this village are being treated unjustly and being deprived of their houses even.
Malik Khan said that they neither have the power nor the money, to challenge the court order but could request the government to find some solution to the grave problem as they have no place to live.
He said that the forest department has given two days’ time to demolition their houses which is unjust as where they would go in such short notice.
Sher Gul requested that the dwellers of Chuk Mansoora be given ownership rights like the villagers of Chuk Mansoora were given since there is no difference in their case.
“If the government doesn’t give us ownership rights then we should be allotted houses where we could live,” he demanded.
It is pertinent to mention here that the prime minister, in his first address to the nation, had promised that no one would be allowed to be unjust to the poor.
Mehboob said that he has already written a letter to the prime minister, requesting him to take notice of the situation.