CHAKWAL: Though it earns millions of rupees annually from the Kallar Kahar Lake, Punjab government’s apathy towards the issue of the lake’s ownership has endangered the very existence of the facility as the owners of the land have won a legal battle.

“It is our land and we are free to utilise it as we want. We would break the lake and use the land for commercial purpose,” warned Mohammad Islam, who owns 50 kanals falling in the lake. “I own 50 kanals of land in the lake but whenever I along with my family go there for boating, we have to pay for it,” said Mr Islam in anguish.

Kallar Kahar Lake spreading over 2779.14 kanals falls in the category of Shamlaar Deh (a land deserved for the common use of all villagers by its joint owners). The land is owned by 529 people.

The issue over the lake’s ownership cropped up in 2004 when the then district nazim, Sardar Ghulam Abbas, ordered construction of a walking track around it. The owners, led by Malik Hakam Khan, filed a case with the civil court the same year, contending that since they owned the land the government had no legal authority to construct anything on it. The court gave a verdict in favour of the plaintiffs. But despite the court order, government departments, including the Tourism Development Corporation of Pakistan (TDCP), Wildlife Department, Forest Department, Fisheries Department, Environment Department and Tehsil Municipal Administration, did not vacate the lake. On January 30, 2009, the owners again moved the civil court seeking execution of the order which was announced in their favour on January 31, 2005.

Meanwhile, the district administration also filed an appeal with the court against the earlier verdict but it was dismissed. But the government departments did not implement the ruling.

In February last year, the owners again went to the court for the execution of the earlier orders. On March 4, 2016, the court again announced the verdict in favour of the owners ordering for the removal of encroachments made by the government on the private land.

In accordance with the court order, one of the owners, Advocate M. A. Khalil Malik, tried to regain the area by putting soil at the main entrance of the lake but his bid was foiled by the assistant commissioner Kallar Kahar.

The plaintiffs again went to the court which issued a fresh order on April 13 ordering for the removal of the encroachments with the help of the police.

“The district administration continues to defy the repeated orders of the courts and is not allowing us to use our land,” Advocate Malik told Dawn.

Mr Malik along with the other owners also filed an application with the Kallar Kahar police seeking the registration of a case against the DCO, AC, TMO and the manager of TDCP but the police did not register the case. The complainants filed a petition with a civil court seeking directions for the registration of a case against the concerned officials. The case is still being heard by the court and its next hearing is on April 25.

On the other hand, the AC Kallar Kahar, Naveed Alam, said the owners of the land had decided at the time of the settlement of the land in 1940 that they would not divide the land and maintain its old status.

(The word “settlement” is used as a term in land records. In Urdu it is called “Bandobast”. The British used to conduct settlement after every 40 years to rectify the land record by putting new changes to it).

In a report sent to the DCO, the AC said that the agreement by the owners that they would not divide the land was included in the “Shart Wajib-Ul_Arx” (a book which contains land record of a single village) but during the hearing of the dispute the agreement was not presented before the courts. He also said the owners of the land gifted 80 kanals falling in the area of the lake to Lahore High Court.

But Advocate Malik said the agreement referred by the AC had no legal value as it was among the owners not between owners and the government.

After the report sent by the AC, DCO Mehmood Javed Bhatti wrote to the higher officials in Lahore proposing the acquisition of all the land.“We are trying our best to save Kallar Kahar Lake,” the DCO told Dawn.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2016